1050 






Class __ 
Book- 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 




SG.W BENJAIVllN 



D APPLETON &C0 

PUBLISHERS. 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2010 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/cruiseofalicemayOObenj 



THE 



CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY 

IN THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE 
AND ADJACENT WATERS. 



WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS 



REPRINTED FROM THE ''CENTURY MAGAZINE:' 



j/BY 

p S. G. VV. BENJAMIN. 



V 




DEC I m:Ai I 



NEW YORK: 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

I, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET. 
1885. 



Copyright, 1884, 
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 






# 






/ 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY M. J. BURNS. 



Off Paspebiac ...... 

Beach at Tracadie ..... 

The Mail-Boat at Prince Edward Island 
Midship Frame of the "Northern Light" 
The Steamer "Arctic" crossing from the Mainland 
A Fish-Boy ...... 

On Deck. — Our Cook ..... 

Amaieur Cooking ..... 

Burning Refuse from the Lumber Mills 
Millstone Quarries ..... 

Our First Fish ...... 

Our Crew at Supper ..... 

Fishermen at Paspebiac ..... 

The Beach at Paspebiac. — A View of the Bay . 

A Fish Establishment at Paspebiac 

Cape Gaspe. — Fishing-Houses at Cape Gaspe 

Head of an Old Pilot. — Up Gasp6 B.\y 

Perce Rock ...... 

Crossing the Ferry at Gaspe. — An Old Oven 
Curing Fish at Perce .... 

Returning from Church ..... 

Perc6 Rock. (Drawn by Thomas Moran.) . 

The Dash to Amherst ..... 

The Old Skipper ..... 

Etang du Nord ...... 

The Fiddler ...... 

Crossing the Ford to Amherst 

A Few of the Natives .... 

Old Fire-Place at Entry Island 

The G.\le at Entry Island .... 

Off Deadman Island ..... 



to the Island 



PAGE 

6 



9 

ID 
II 

12 

14 
i6 

19 

21 
22 
30 
32 

33 
35 
37 
39 
40 

41 

42 

44 
55 
56 

58 

59 
61 
64 
66 
67 
71 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Guernsey Island ...... 

The Bay of Islands ..... 

Cape Blomidon. — Prospecting . . . . 

Up the River Humber ..... 

Fishing off the B.a.y of Islands . . . . 

The Mail-Carrier ...... 

The Dance at Petipas . . . . . 

A Street in St. Pierre ..... 

A Fishing Gang at St. Pierre . . . . 

Government Houses and Town Pumps at St. Pierre 
A Street Corner ...... 

A Sketch off St. Pierre. — A St. Pierre Fishing-Boat 
The Cathedral . . . ... 

Fishing for Squid ...... 

Curing Fish at St. Pierre . . . . . 

The Town Crier ...... 

Struck by a Squall ...... 

The Bras d'Or Lakes, Cape Breton Island . 
Indian Camp at Baddeck. — A Wigwam Cradle . 
On the Road to Baddeck .... 

Cape Porcupine. — Cape St. George, from Hastings 
Lovers' Lane, Hastings ..... 

A Street at Arichat ...... 

An Old Cottage at Arichat .... 

The Oldest House in Prince Edward Island . 
Heaving the Log ...... 



PAGE 

75 
76 

77 
81 
82 
85 
87 
93 
94 
96 
98 

99 
102 
104 
106 
107 
109 

"3 
116 
117 
122 
124 
126 
127 
128 
129 



LIST OF MAPS 



Cruise of the Alice May ....... 

Map of the Trip from Charlottetown to Paspebiac 

Map of the Cruise. (Paspebiac to the Magdalen Isles.) 

Map of the Cruise from the Magdalen Islands to Cape St. George 

The Cruise of the Alice May through the Bay of Islands 

Map of the Cruise from the Bay of Islands to St. Pierre 

From St. Pierre to Georgetown ...... 



18 
27 
45 
53 
74 
90 
119 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



I. 



VERY one has heard of the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence, but few are aware of 
the variety and beauty of the attrac- 
tions it offers to the tourist and the 
artist. Even to such as have given 
it some thought it generally appears 
to be a region of mists, snow, and 
storms, and more or less enveloped 
in hyperborean glooms. But re- 
cently sportsmen and yacht-sailors 
have begun to visit the western 
shores of the gulf, and a suspicion 
is dawning on the mind of the sum- 
mer rambler that this part of the 
world has been maligned, and that 
during the summer solstice it offers a variety of 
attractions up to this time all but unknown. 

Anxious to see for ourselves the truth of the mat- 
ter, and to view some of these points of interest be- 
■"" fore the tide of summer travel had worn away the 
novelty, we prepared a cruise round the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence and the adjacent waters. 

The point of departure was Charlottetown, Prince 
Edward Island. Through the kindness of a friend residing there, a suit- 
able schooner was chartered. But when the day for taking possession 
arrived, the schooner failed to put in an appearance. Here, at the very 
outset, we encountered one of the most common annoyances which a 
punctual man and a Yankee is forced to endure in the maritime provinces. 
Punctuality or appreciation of the value of time is scarcely understood 




6 THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

there. Without delay, we threw out scouts in every direction to report 
on the matter of available schooners. Long search was attended by many 
pleasant incidents. It gave us an opportunity to see much of this charm- 
ing island, and to enjoy the genial hospitality of its people, especially the 
kind folk of Charlottetown. This is a quiet but attractive place of some 
ten thousand inhabitants. On the outskirts, especially in the neighbor- 
hood of the Governor's mansion, there is much beauty in the residences, 
which are surrounded by shrubbery and situated by the water-side. 

Tuesdays and Fridays are the days when Charlottetown shows the 
most evidence of activity and commercial prosperity. The market-house 
occupies a prominent place in the square where the Government buildings 






Off Paspebiac. 



are situated. On these days it is crowded by both the city and country 
folk, the latter including a few Indians. An active barter in provisions 
takes place between the towns-people and the farmers, while that part of 
the city bears the appearance of a gala-day. 

Two causes have recently produced great commercial depression on 
the island. These are the failure of the Prince Edward Island Bank, 
through the — what shall we call it ? — of the directors, and the decline in 
ship-building, which, until the primeval forests had been cut down, was a 
great source of revenue to the island. The failure of the fisheries and the 
absence of American fishermen from the Gulf, partly caused by the short- 
sighted policy of the Dominion Government, have also affected the pros- 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. y 

parity of this province. In summer time Prince Edward Island enjoys a 
delightful temperature : the mercury ranges for three months from sixty 
to seventy-six degrees, rarely varying from those figures. The air is dry 
and free from fogs, and, as the wind invariably comes off the sea, the island 
is exceedingly healthful. The advantages for summer visitors are increased 
by the abundance of fresh meat and other provisions, the cheapness of 
living, and the loveliness of the drives in every direction over a country 
that is gently undulating, verdurous, and always in sight of the sea. The 
rivers, notably the Dunk, the Hunter, and the Morell rivers, abound with 







Beach at Tracadie. 



fine salmon and trout fishing, 
and the long reaches of sand 
along the easterly shore are 
frequented bv snipe, ]:)lover, 
and duck. Evervwhere a 
pastoral peace pervades the 
farms on the edge of the for- 
ests. Fine droves of horses 
enliven the fields, and remind one of Thessaly, the land of fleet-footed 
steeds. 

It is not singular that these attractions have begun to draw the atten- 
tion of summer tourists, who find comfortable accommodations at the farm- 
houses or at the hotels erected at such charming resorts as Rustico and 
Tracadie. Houses may also be rented by the season on very moderate 
terms. It is to the influx of such visitors, with pockets popularly supposed 
to be lined with gold, that the island may reasonably look for a return of 



8 THE CRUISE OE THE ALICE MAY. 

some of its vanished prosperity- The facilities for observing the scenery 
of Prince Edward Island are greatly aided by a narrow-gauge railroad, 
which is always sure to be used, as the Dominion agreed to keep it going 
when the island entered into the confederation ; but no one expects it ever 
to pay its expenses. The lobster-canning business, which has also assumed 
great dimensions in Prince Edward Island, might likewise be considered a 
powerful means of driving the wolf from the door, if but the uncertain 
crustaceans could be depended upon. But they take no interest whatever 
in the designs of capitalists and fishermen to ship them to the markets of 




Tlie Mail-Boat at Prince Ed-vard Island. 



the world in elegantly labeled tin cases, and, declining to co-operate in 
these schemes when the season comes around, may take a notion to forsake 
their haunts for parts unknown. Then the canning factory is closed, and 
the fisherman's dory lies bleaching on the shore while he anxiously smokes 
his pipe and talks of emigrating to the United States, maligning the day 
when the island entered the Dominion. In default of any better cause, the 
people generally agree in tracing their ills to this union ; but the sequence 
is by no means self-evident. 

Gazing over these pleasant landscapes and breathing the soft southern 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. g 

breeze, it is difficult to realize that for many months the island is not only 
covered with snow to an enormous depth, but also well-nigh shut out from 
the rest of the world by a tremendous barrier of ice. From January until 
May, at least, Northumberland Strait is frozen over. The mails are carried 
across at the narrowest part, near Cape Tormentine, or Jourimain, a dis- 
tance of nine miles. The carriers drag a boat over the hummocks of ice 
which is provided with runners like a double keel. 

When they come to open water they cross in the — 

boat. It is a dangerous and arduous journey, and / \ 

few undertake it besides the hardy mail-carriers. [ ] 

For two or three winters past the passage has been V— A'-^'-.--'...^^.''."-V-'.?-~ -/ 

made sometimes by the steamer Northern Light, \. / 

constructed especiall}- for this service. She has a \^ / 

frame of enormous strength, somewhat of a wedge \ / 

form, with a solid shoe of iron at the bow ; every- ^,., ..^ _ ., 

' ■' Midship prame of the 

thing about her was planned to enable her to crush ''Northern Light!' 

her wa}' through the ice, which is often from two 

to four feet thick. Her course is from Pictou to Georgetown, a distance 
of some eighty miles, although she often has to go over two or three times 
that distance to reach her port. In all the annals of steam navigation 
there is no such packet service recorded as this of the Northern IJght. 
Sometimes the ice is so dense that she can make no headway, but is 
jammed fast for days and weeks, or carried to and fro b}'^ the combined 
fury of ice and storms. The passenger who starts in her for Prince 
Edward Island in March has before him the horrors of polar solitude and 
hazard. In the spring of 1882 the Northern Light was three weeks making 
this brief passage, fast locked in the ice-packs. Sometimes she was car- 
ried close to the shore, but no one could bring aid to the starving passen- 
gers, owing to the threatening condition of the ice. It was only after 
burning all the woodwork in the cabin for fuel, and being reduced to the 
last biscuit, that the worn-out and hopeless passengers reached the des- 
tined port. Think of a civilized and enlightened people, in this age, shut 
off from the rest of the world by such a frightful siege of ice and tempest 
and snow ! Nor is this an occasional thing. As regularly as the winter 
comes around, the islanders look forward to this long hibernation and 
isolation. Were it not for this drawback, the island might be a paradise. 
During the long winter the people contrive to exist with some comfort, 
and find compensations for their solitude. Sleigh-rides and skating are 
followed with much zest, and there is a good deal of merriment and 
festivity. 



lO 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



Charlottetown is, of course, the center of life in Prince Edward Island, 
but the social distinctions are drawn with considerable and, perhaps, 
unnecessary emphasis. Lying as it does on an arm of the sea which 
extends east and west some forty miles like a river, this city enjoys fine 
facilities for aquatic sports, while the drives in the neighborhood are, 
during the summer, very agreeable. Everything here is, however, on a 
reduced scale, except the land and water, and the ideas of the country 
people are on a level with their environment. They tell a good story of a 
country lout who had never seen any larger place than Souris, at the 
eastern end of the island, not even Charlottetown. Souris has about two 
thousand inhabitants. One of his companions made a trip to New York, 




The Slcamer '^ Arctic" crossing from the Mainland to the Island. 



and on his return expatiated on the vastness of that great city. " And 
now, and is't as large as Souris, then ? " inquired the former, incredulously. 
Money goes far here, because it is scarce, and time and provisions, the 
chief commodities, are cheap. The people are mostly of Scotch descent. 
The remnants of a tribe of Micmacs, civilized almost out of existence, still 
occupy a reservation on Indian Island, in Richmond Bay, and sell baskets 
and bead-work at the weekly market. Descendants of the original Acadian 
French yet farm the lands about Rustico and Ingonish. They have a 
convent at the latter place. By far the most numerous people on Prince 
Edward Island are the Highland Scotch. They came here originally from 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



II 




A Fish-Boy. 



12 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



the Hebrides, driven from home, it is said, by the religious oppression of 
the lairds. They have increased and multiplied, and, with the addition of 
the French habitans, nearly half the population is Roman Catholic. There 
are, however, many Protestant Scotch mingled with the others, and, with 
the exception of the annually recurring public school question, they appear 
to live together very peaceably. 

The Scotch have a Caledonian Club at Charlottetown, and once a year 
there is a great gathering of the clans, with a correspondmg display of 

plaids. The same clan 
names reappear so con- 
stantly that, in order to 
avoid confusion, curi- 
ous sobriquets are often 
attached to a person's 
name ; as, for example, 
a certain McDonald is 
called Red Angus Mc- 
Donald, to distinguish 
him from White Angus 
McDonald. One of the 
most prominent fami- 
lies of Prince Edward 
Island is that of James Yeo, who accumulated 
a veiy large fortune in ship-building. His 
sons are members of the Dominion Parlia- 
ment. He came from England as a cabin- 
boy, and the rough school in which he was 
bred always marked his character. Many 
curious stories about him are current. When 
annoyed by any family jar, he would secrete 
himself in the cuddy of an old schooner with 
a keg of rum and remain there until it was 
exhausted. He once lost a brig, and three of the crew also perished ; 
when alluding to the misfortune he exclaimed, " Poor things ! two souls 
and an Irishman ! " 

Prince Edward Island was first discovered by Cabot, who called it St. 
John's Island, which name it retained until 1800; and the French still call 
it Isle St. Jean. Verrazzano took possession of it for France in 1523, and 
the French at once established a number of fishing stations there. But the 
island was ceded to England by the treaty of Fontainebleau, and Lord 




Oiir Cook. 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. I, 

Egmont was appointed to draw up a form of colonial government. 
Assuming that the Micmac Indians were ferocious savages, instead of the 
inoffensive beings they proved to be, he laid out an absurd plan to divide 
the 2,000,000 acres at his disposal into fifty parts, called baronies, of which 
forty were to be granted to as many colonists, bearing the title of lords of 
hundreds. They were to owe allegiance to him as lord paramount. The 
baronies were in turn to be subdivided into manors. Fairs were to occur 
four times yearly in each barony, and markets twice weekly. Feudal 
castles were to be built likewise to protect the colonists in a place of 
which it was said, " The settler can scarce straggle from his habitation five 
hundred yards, even in times of peace, without risk of being intercepted, 
scalped, and murdered." 

This was indeed a narrow escape from a preposterous attempt to im- 
port to the New World an exploded system of the past. But, although 
Lord Egmont's plan was finally rejected, a scarcely less objectionable one 
was adopted, by whose provisions the island was divided into sixty-one 
lots. One of these went to the Crown, and the others were sold in one 
day to the highest bidders. It is only recently, and after a long struggle, 
that Prince Edward Island has become independent of this system. 

While picking up these notes by the way, we were pursuing our inde- 
fatigable search for a schooner, as the season was well advanced, and the 
time to cruise in those waters is before the September equinoctial. At last 
we heard of a desirable craft at Miminegash, an obscure port but little 
known to fame. A bargain was closed after much chaffering with the 
owner, an owre canny Scot, and the vessel was brought around to Char- 
lottetown to be manned and provisioned. The Alice May, of Miminegash, 
was fifty-nine feet long and sixteen feet wide, and with a full set of ballast 
drew seven feet aft. She registered fifty-six tons, and, being intended for 
a freighter, had a flat floor and could hardly be called a clipper. But she 
was very strong and reasonably safe. Being heavily sparred for a coaster, 
and carrying sail well, she was properly fitted to grapple with the variable 
weather we expected to encounter. 

The Alice May had no forecastle for the crew, but only a small cuddy 
aft, with bunks for four men. This also served for a galley, after the man- 
ner of small coasters. We therefore turned the hold into a cabin, and a 
very comfortable and spacious place it proved to be. By fixing two bulk- 
heads of deal fore and aft, we obtained a " saloon " eighteen feet long by 
sixteen feet wide, exactly amidships. A small trunk or booby-hatch with 
a slide was arranged over the main hatch for a companion-way. Plain 
bunks were fixed to each side, ample as a divan, thus serving alternately 



14 



THE CRUISE OE THE ALICE MAY. 



for berth, sofa, or lounge, as circumstances might suggest. Our table was 
at the after end, and a cylindrical stove, which is indispensable for a 
cruiser in those waters, even in midsummer, was at the opposite end. Un- 
der the bunks were lockers for our stores. Numerous cleats, nails, and 
shelves were soon festooned with coats, caps, sou'westers, storm-boots, spy- 
glasses, charts, fowling-pieces, water-jugs, pipes, fishing-rods, and the in- 
dispensable looking-glass and barometer. There was no paint anywhere 
except such as we daubed in artistic dabs during the cruise, with the pa- 




A matcur Cooking. 



lette knife when cleaning a palette. But the general effect was not by any 
means unattractive. It certainly suggested comfort, and preparation for 
any emergency that might occur. 

Our crew consisted of a captain, a mate, and one man before the mast. 
It was thought this would be sufficient with the cook, who might bear a 
hand on occasion ; and we were able, in case of need, to stand a watch in 
bad weather ourselves. These coasters generally get along with one man 
on deck in good weather to steer and to keep a lookout. Sometimes even 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 15 

he falls asleep at the wheel, and everything is left to chance. It is a happy- 
go-lucky way, which works very well until something happens. A major- 
ity of the accidents to coasting vessels from collision or squalls are the 
result of gross laziness or culpable carelessness. 

Captain Welch had in his day been master of square-rigged vessels, but, 
being now well along in years, was forced to put up with fore-and-afters. 
It requires a special experience to sail a schooner well ; but still the sailing 
of a square-rigged vessel is more complicated, and is, at any rate, consid- 
ered a grade higher in seamanship. The captain's white beard, the far-off 
look in his wrinkled eyes, the poetic speech in which he indulged, and his 
nervous temperament, easily elated or depressed, would far more easily 
have made him pass for a Celtic bard than an old man of the sea. John, 
the mate, was a Frenchman, short, quick, and of mercurial disposition. 
Bill, who in his single person represented the crew, was every inch a sailor, 
large, lithe, powerful, and efficient if well commanded ; he had the real 
seaman's grip that would enable him to hang on to a foot-rope with his 
eyelids, and the nonchalant recklessness or stupid dare-deviltry which 
made him careless of dangers with which he w^as familiar, while cowardly 
in the presence of new forms of peril. Fond he was, too, of his grog, and 
of handling his knife when half-seas-over, and was never without the ever- 
lasting quid pressing out his cheek like a walnut in a squirrel's mouth. In 
a word, Bill was a representative blue-water sailor. 

It is needless to go into the details of the provisions stored in the 
schooner for a cruise of two months. Everything was ready, the rigging 
overhauled, the last nail pounded in ; the winds were favorable ; and yet 
we were detained at Charlottetown day after day, unable to sail. It was a 
cook that we waited for : what was the use of having provisions, fuel, or 
galley, without a cook ? A sea-cook is a peculiar character, requiring a 
special training. He must know how to prepare a sea hash out of salt 
horse flavored with onions, incrusted with the variegated browns of pol- 
ished mahogany, and savory enough to create an appetite in a stomach that 
the tossing waves have rendered as sensitive as the needle of a compass. 
He must also understand how to make eatable bread, and take his duff out 
of the kettle on Sunday as light as cotton and as delicate as sponge-cake. 
Besides this, he must know how to economize in the use of water and 
provisions ; and, more difficult yet, he must contrive to keep the crew 
satisfied with the mess he cooks for them, while at the same time he 
looks out sharply for the interests of his employer and the captain. He 
must also be proof against the worst weather, and undeviatingly punct- 
ual to the hours of meals. It goes without saying that it is not an easy 



i6 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



thing to find such a paragon in the galley ; but when he is there, he is, 
next to the captain, by far the most important character on board. We 
had made up our minds that it would be difficult to find a cook in 
Charlottetown, combining such exalted qualifications, who would be wilj- 




Burning Refuse from the Lumber Mills. 



ing to go for such a brief cruise, and were prepared to take up almost 
any one that offered. But we were not prepared to meet such a gang 
of shiftless, shuffling, vacillating, prevaricating, self-complacent, exorbi- 
tant, and utterly good-for-nothing varlets as those who applied for the 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



17 



position, or whom we discovered after chasing through the lanes, sailors' 
boarding-houses, and purlieus of Charlottetown. Over and over again 
we thought we had engaged a man ; but when the time came to sail, 
he was not to be found. At last, out of all patience with the whole 
business, we telegraphed to a friend in St. John, New Brunswick, to send 
us a cook, and that we would pick him up at Point du Chene. No reply 
had arrived to the telegram when we sailed, and thus we started with- 
out a cook, in a sort of vain hope of stumbling across one at some port. 

A group of our good friends at Charlottetown came down to the 
wharf to give us a send-off. Healths were exchanged, the canvas was 
spread, and we shoved off. As the little vessel gathered way before the 
southerly breeze, they gave a parting hurrah, and we returned the salute 
by emptying our revolvers and dipping the red colors and jack of old 
England, which flew at the mast-head. 

With light and variable winds, we reached Summerside the next 
afternoon. There we came to anchor, and went on shore to learn if there 
was any telegram regarding a cook. To our intense relief, we learned 
that we should find one at Point du Chene, waiting for us. Here we 
also made some of those final purchases of stores which are hkely to be 
forgotten on starting. Then we hurried on board and made sail. There 
was really but little to detain us at Summerside. It is a new place, 
which sprang up mushroom-like, and soon threatened with its bustling 
prosperity to overtop every other port in the island. But its growth 
stopped before it could become beautified by the slow growth of ver- 
dure, and it is now a mere naked cluster of warehouses and uninteresting, 
cheaply-constructed dwellings. But it is situated on Bedecque Bay, a lovely 
estuary into which empties the Dunk River, whose waters are the delight 
of the disciples of the gentle craft. Midway in the bay lies Park Island. 
Some years ago a capitalist of Summerside conceived the idea of making 
this island a summer resort. He purchased it, and in its center built a com- 
modious hotel, the largest in Prince Edward Island. Charming walks and 
drives were cut through the groves, bathing-houses were put up on the 
beach, and numerous other attractions were offered to guests. A small 
steamer was bought expressly to carry them over, and it seemed as if the 
place ought to bring a profit to the enterprising proprietor who had such 
confidence in the charms of his native isle. But he sunk all his fortune in 
this ill-starred enterprise, and his anxieties brought him to an early grave. 
The hotel, standing on the islet, empty and deserted, adds a tinge of dreari- 
ness to an otherwise pleasing picture. 

As we ran up the strait that evening, we had an exciting race with a 
2 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 





> 


UJ 


< 


CO 


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D 


X w 


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schooner bound the same way, having a number of boisterous workmen on 
board going to the mines. She was close alongside, and as we gained on 
her and were passing, she luffed up, being able to shave the wind a little 
closer than the Alice May, and tried to run us down. We escaped a collision 
by putting the helm down quickly. Then keeping away, we passed her as 
a strong puff gave us increased headway ; and as we left them astern, they 
gave a wild, mocking peal of laughter that had in it a touch of deviltry as 



THE CRUISE GF THE ALICE MAY. 



19 



it rang over the sea. It blew fresh that night, with squalls, and we took in 
the kites. We found the schooner stiff and able to carry sail hard. That 
night, as the previous night, we stood our watch on deck. But this was 
interesting, compared with the responsibility of preparing meals. There 
were four of us in the main saloon, as we styled it, or three besides the 
writer of this log. The junior member of the party, a youth of sixteen, 
was nicknamed the Infant. Pendennis, the tallest of the party, went by the 
affectionate sobriquet of the Cherub, probably because of the remoteness 




Millstone Quan-ies. 



of the resemblance. Then there was my companion Burns, who was already 
familiar with sea life. We took turns in preparing the meals, one of the 
crew being delegated to light the fire. We found it convenient to culti- 
vate a taste for ham and eggs or plain boiled eggs, little art being required 
to cook them. The cook for the time being was expected to get his wages 
in chaff, of which he received an unUmited amount from the others. Fortu- 
nately, we all knew how to brew a good cup of tea, not so easy an accom- 
plishment as some might imagine. 

It began to blow hard after midnight, from the southwest. The morn- 



20 THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

ing broke with a very wild offing and the promise of a stormy day. But 
we were near to Point du Chene, the line of the long, low shore blending 
with the scurrying scud and a yeast of white caps flashing angrily in the 
fierce rays that shot through a rift in the clouds. Lying well over to the 
blasts, the Alice May beat up toward the land, and there was every prospect 
of soon reaching a snug anchorage, when with a violent shock she struck 
on a shoal. The first thought that flashed on us was. Can it be that the 
cruise is going to end just as it begins? But the emergency called for 
instant action rather than for deliberation. The tide had yet a foot to rise, 
and we must float her then or perhaps never, because she lay m a very 
exposed position, and a shift of the wind to southeast would have finished 
her. We got out the boat, carried an anchor well out to starboard, and 
bowsed on it for two hours with no result. Meantime, the wind had shifted 
into nor'west and was blowing a perfect screecher. By keeping canvas up, 
the vessel was finally pressed well over on her side, tending to move the 
keel and float her, and at length she suddenly started. Then it was, " Heave 
away, boys ; be smart, now ! " in order that she might not overrun the anchor 
as she slued into deep water and began to gather way like a bird released 
from its cage. 

We now ran up and anchored at Point du Chene, and went ashore to get 
the cook. But no cook was there. We learned that he had arrived, but, 
not finding us, had vmwisely gone on in the boat the previous day to Char- 
lottetown, and could not return until Monday. Disappointment is a feeble 
word to express our chagrin. Point du Chene, with its neighbor Shediac, 
offers few attractions to the tourist. It is merely the terminus of the rail- 
road, where the steamboat plying to Prince Edward Island comes during 
the summer. But we procured some fresh meat, took in a little more bal- 
last to counteract a list to starboard, and shipped another hand, who proved 
to be Tom, the son of Captain Welch, who was there in a schooner. We 
were now able to have two men in a watch, which relieved us from the 
necessity of passing the night on deck. Monday morning we rowed in the 
boat up the river to Shediac, a delightful sail. There we found the tide so 
low we could not come within a hundred yards of the beach, even with our 
sixteen-foot yawl. Seeing our predicament, a crowd of bare-legged urchins, 
about the age and shape of cupids, floated a miniature punt off to us ; then, 
seizing the painter with great glee and noisy splashing, they towed us one by 
one to the shore. The air rang with peals of laughter from the bystanders ; 
and it was indeed a merry sight, and comical also, for the punt was in con- 
stant danger of spilling out its occupant. 

At one o'clock we were all on the lookout for the arrival of the steamer 



THE CRUISE OE THE ALICE MAY. 



21 




Our First Fish. 



from Summerside. The burning question of the hour was to cook or not 
to cook. Would the cook be on board ? Was he white, black, or yellow, 
and would he know his business if he actually came? The excitement 
grew as the hour approached. The steamer hove in sight ; she ranged 



22 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



up to the pier ; the passengers stepped ashore, and after a brief interval 
our boat was seen coming- off with a third man in the stern sheets. It must 
be the cook. As he drew nearer, his sable complexion not only settled 
the question, but also added a strong probability, amounting almost to cer- 
tainty, that he was a good cook. Our surmises proved to be correct in 
just one minute after he stepped on deck. It had already struck eight 
bells. 

" Have you had your dinner yet, sir?" he inquired. 




Our Crew at Supper. 



" No ; we have been waiting for you." 

"All right, sir; you shall have dinner right away." 

Stepping into the galley in a trice, he stripped off his coat, rolled up 
his sleeves, and in half an hour we sat down to the best meal that had ever 
been seen on board the Alice May since she left the stocks. From that day 
to the hour we landed again in Charlottetown, Henry Richards proved 
himself a capital cook, provided with no end of inventive culinary re- 
sources ; he was indefatigable in the discharge of his duties, sober and 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



23 



faithful to the interests of his employers. Happy the ship that sails with 
such a cook, and happy the diners who batten on his beefsteak and onions, 
hash, roly-poly, and tea. 

At sea, action and reflection go hand in hand. One minute after he 
boarded us Henry was getting dinner, and three minutes later the crew 
manned the windlass, hove the anchor short, made sail, and we put to sea. 
We had a staving breeze from southeast and by south, and bowled away 
merrily for Miramichi. After night-fall the sky became very dark, and it 
blew heavily. We flew before sea and wind, and made the Escumenac 
liofht in the middle watch, but could not run in with such weather without 
a pilot. We hove to with a tremendous sea running, the darkness aflame 
with flashing phosphorus, and the little schooner pitching her jib-boom 
under and knocking passengers and furniture about the cabin without cere- 
mony. It does not take long to raise a high, wall-like swell in the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence, owing to the shoal water. The lights of other vessels in 
our neighborhood, bobbing like will-o'-the-wisps in the gloom, and, like us, 
waiting for dawn, suggested a sharp lookout. At intervals the long, mel- 
ancholy cry of the loons floated down the wind like the wail of lost spirits 
— a sign of east wind, in the opinion of some — which led Captain Welch 
to observe the next morning : " The loons was a-crying for the east wind 
all night." 

A dapper little pilot schooner left a pilot with us at daylight, and we 
ran across the bar, w^here a vessel was lost with all on board a year or two 
ago in a gale. It was a long but delightful beat up the Miramichi River 
that day. After leaving the broad entrance, we found the river winding, 
and closed in with lovely overhanging cliffs, crested with verdure which 
festooned the caves that honeycomb the rocks. Picturesque farms on the 
slopes, surrounded by natural groves of pine and spruce, and fishermen's 
huts and boats under the cliffs, gave Hfe to what is really an enchanting 
stream. 

Thirty miles from the sea, we at last anchored at Chatham, the wind 
blowing in violent squalls, which terminated in a tremendous thunder- 
storm, attended by terrific gloom. When the clouds cleared away, the 
glow of the setting sun illumined the wet roofs and shipping of this 
bustling little place with wonderful splendor. Chatham, as well as New- 
castle, two miles farther up on the opposite bank, was once a great ship- 
building port. This business has left it ; but a great lumber trade has 
sprung up instead, which brings profit to the neighborhood, while it is 
rapidly stripping the noble primeval woods of New Brunswick. Upward 
of three hundred square-rigged vessels arrive there during the summer 



24 



THE CRUISE OE THE ALICE MAY. 



for lumber, chiefly for the foreign market. The appearance of the town 
is therefore very animated, with its rafts of logs, its stagings and saw-mills, 
and wharves lined with large vessels two or three abreast. In 1881 the 
feet of lumber brought down the southwest boom of the Miramichi 
reached 140,000,000. At night-time, the river front of the town is lurid 
with the vivid flames of refuse wood burning in brick-lined furnaces along 
the river. Another large business here is the salmon fishery. Chatham is 
on the railroad, and the fish, packed in ice, are sent directly to the United 
States. Six car-loads have been forwarded from this place alone in one 
day. The time for catching the fish is from May ist to August 15th. 
Every farmer by the river spreads his own nets in the water opposite his 
land, and owns a dug-out to land the fish. During the winter large num- 
bers of smelts and bass are also caught through the ice, and sent by rail to 
our markets. 

July 1 2th we filled our water-casks, and, in company with a fleet of 
Swedish and Norwegian lumber-laden barks, started down the river. The 
beauty of the shores induced us to land where a gang of laborers was 
engaged in cutting out mill-stones, which are an important source of profit 
at Miramichi. They were at work in a romantic spot under a cliff, and 
the click of their mallets rang musically with the plashing of the dashing 
current. A little farther on, our boat glided into a fairy-like cove. A 
farmer was just returning from his nets with some very fine salmon. If 
we were like some fishermen, we might say we caught salmon ourselves 
on this river. But truth compels the more prosaic statement that all the 
salmon we caught on the Miramichi we bought from this farmer. He 
asked us to climb the cliff to his house, which we found superbly situated 
on the brow of a noble lawn, terminating at the river in a precipice. The 
chubby, flaxen-haired children, bareheaded and barefooted, gathered round 
to stare at us, with their hands uneasily clasped behind them, as we sat 
in the " best room." The venerable grandmother brought us a large 
jug full of fresh milk in her shaking hand. While drinking it, we could 
see the upper sails of the lumber fleet above the cliff as they glided 
close by the land. It reminded me of many a similar and familiar scene 
on the Bosphorus. I could not but marvel that some of our people 
in search of summer resorts, who are willing to go to the River St. 
Lawrence, do not build or hire houses for the summer on this charm- 
ing spot, the air being delightful, the scenery exceptionally attractive, 
salmon and trout abundant, and the cost of living moderate. " It would 
do us a great deal of good, sir, if some of your folks in the States who 
have money would but come here and buy our lands and provisions," 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



25 



remarked the old grandmother, with a twinkle in her gray eyes, as we 
bid her good-by. 

With a leading wind, we sailed down the tortuous channel of the Mira- 
michi and crossed the bar, with a rosy light of evening flushing the sails of 
the lumber fleet. One of them we left behind. She grounded in the 
channel at high water, and probably had to throw over part of her cargo. 
We headed now for the Bay of Chaleurs. The weather being fine, the 
crew began this evening the habit of taking their meals on deck, which 
they did after this whenever the weather permitted. It was an interesting 
sight to watch them clustered around the dishes, which were placed on 
the after part of the trunk. The captain had a separate seat at the head of 
this unique table, where he presided with patriarchal dignity, entertaining 
the crew with yarns from his own varied experience. There is not much 
attempt at discipline on these down-east coasters, but the crew are con- 
trolled by a sort of family arrangement. The captain gives the orders in 
an easy fashion, and the men sometimes give suggestions regarding the 
working of the ship which would procure them a broken head if attempt- 
ed on a square-rigged vessel. Captain Welch and the mate had an 
animated and by no means amiable discussion one day regarding the 
course to be followed, without any other result than a continuous mutter- 
ing on both sides, until eight bells called all hands to supper. The south- 
west wind prevails in the Gulf of St. Lawrence during the summer time. 
This is favorable to yachts cruising northward, but must be taken into 
calculation when they shape a course for home. This wind is generally 
quite steady, freshening up at night ; but sometimes it increases to a gale, 
followed by a strong westerly wind for a day or two. But no dependence 
whatever can be placed upon the Gulf weather after the last of August. 
Favored by this southerly wind, we flew northward all night, and the tight 
little schooner put in her " best licks," as her speed was tested better with 
a free wind. The wake was a ■ mass of gleaming foam interwoven with 
magical green, white, and red sparkles that seemed to come up like stars 
from the black, mysterious depths below. The galaxy, or " milkmaid's 
path " as sailors call it, and the northern lights gleamed at the opposite 
poles. It fell calm before breakfast, and we caught a number of cod. The 
low shore of New Brunswick was on the port beam, and numerous fishing 
boats were out. As we passed near one of them laden with lobsters, we 
hailed her crew in French, and threw them ten cents fixed in the split end 
of a stick. In return they hurled a shower of lobsters on board, which 
came so fast on deck that we were forced to duck our heads below the rail 
to. avoid being hit by the ugly monsters. We thus obtained many more 



26 THE CRUISE OE THE ALICE MAY. 

lobsters than we could possibly eat. Never have I seen lobsters cheaper 
or fresher than these. 

At noon of July 12th, we passed the octagonal light-house on the low, 
sandy point at the northern end of Shipegan Island, and were fairly in the 
Bay of Chaleurs. Twenty miles across loomed the lofty northern shores 
of the bay, beautiful ranges of mountains with jagged peaks melting 
dreamily into the thunderous clouds brooding ominously in the north. 
The southern shores of the bay are much lower and less interesting, and 
offer only one safe harbor, Bathurst ; and that is exposed to northerly 
gales. Caraquette is only good for light-draught fishing craft. The glass 
was now falling, and the baffling winds indicated a blow by night-time. 
The Bay of Chaleurs is ninety miles long, and is a dangerous sheet of 
water in easterly winds. But it is free from shoals, and has a good bottom 
excepting near the southern entrance, and there is good holding ground 
everywhere near to the northern coast. The famous Restigouche River, 
coming from the gorges of Gaspe county, empties into the bay at its west- 
ern end, near Dalhousie. A number of other sti"eams, such as the Chariot, 
the Bass, and Tete a Gauche, also find an outlet here. They abound in 
fine trout and salmon — a fact which renders this region important for 
sportsmen, who are already beginning to flock thither during the summer. 
The bay has also been a noted resort of American fishermen on account of 
its mackerel. But the fish are now scarce, which, together with the 
restrictions of the treaty laws, has drawn away the American fishing 
schooners which once resorted to these waters by hundreds. Owing to its 
size, it has been a disputed question between the two governments 
whether the Bay of Chaleurs should be considered a ba}- or part of the 
open sea — a matter of importance in the sea fisheries. The bay was 
discovered by Jacques Cartier, who probably suffered from the heat there, 
judging from the name he gave it. It was the scene of the defeat of a 
French fleet by the English in 1760. 

The weather became very thick after sunset, with a strong easterly 
breeze. We kept a good lookout, and had a narrow escape from collision 
with a French schooner. As they swept by they hailed us in French, and 
our mate flung a few choice French epithets in return. At midnight the 
wind shifted into the nor'west and blew a fresh gale, with a nasty sea. 
The Alice May beat up against it nobly. It was now a clear starlight, and 
it was exciting to see the little vessel bending over to her scuppers in the 
gray sea and flinging sheets of spray over her cat-heads. 

A magnificent dawn succeeded this variable night, and as the sun 
burst above the sea, it revealed a truly remarkable scene. A slope of 



THE CRUISE OE THE ALICE MAY. 



27 



extraordinary regularity, as if it had been smoothed with a roller, was 
discovered extending some fifteen miles along the sea, where it terminated 
in an unbroken line of red cliffs from forty to one hundred feet high. This 
fine slope was covered with a carpet of a vivid emerald hue. At the base 
of the red, cavern-hollowed cliffs rolled the sea, deep-purple and blue. 
This slope was outlined against a distant range of violet-tinted mountains 
limned against an opalescent sky. It was indeed a noble and exhilarating 
prospect. But it w^as rendered yet more remarkable by a line of houses 
extending for nearly six miles 
along the crest of the slope. The 
rising sun smote full on these 
dwellings, and, at the distance 
we were from them, they looked 
like the tents of an army en- 
camped there ; and, indeed, I 
thought at first it might be the 
camp of militia taking their sum- 
mer exercises. But when the 
sun struck the windows of these 
houses, they flashed like stars 
over the sea or like beaten gold. 
As we drew nearer to the 
land, we made out a long, low 
point, covered with white build- 
ings and terminating in a light- 
house, the effect being that of a 
sea-walled town in the Mediter- 
ranean. Then we knew that we 
were off the French town of 
Paspebiac. It had all the rapt- 
ure of a surprise for us, because 
never before that morning had 

I heard of the place. It really seemed as if it might be an exhalation 
from the sea, a vision of the morning, doomed to fade away as the sun 
rose higher in the heavens. But the keen gusts off the land, singing 
through the rigging of our bending barkie, soon brought us so near there 
was no longer any room to doubt that we had hit upon an important and 
beautiful town. We anchored off the spit, but soon slipped around to the 
other side, where we again anchored in a roadstead protected from east- 
erly winds, and reasonablv safe in summer from winds blowing in other 




-47 --JD 

c 



■ ^ EsfcumenacCape Lgape 
4, k C.Gage/^* -% 






"^ . C.Tormen^inSl ^^^-^ ';iW^'' 



Map of the Ttip fnvn Charlottetoivn to Paspebiac. 



28 THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

quarters. With our usual expedition we immediately had the boat put 
into the water and went on shore. The Hght-house and an old wreck 
bleaching near to it on the sandy beach first impressed us as being artisti- 
cally available, as the genial editor would say regarding a manuscript 
upon which he is disposed to bestow the smile of acceptance. Having 
sketched these objects, we adjourned to the Lion Inn to dine. This quaint 
little hostel is on the point, with water close on either hand. A one-time 
much gilded lion, but now somewhat rusty, wagged his tufted tail fero- 
ciously over the door, and a green settle on either side invited the guest 
to an out-of-door seat overlooking the bay. The buxom landlady was a 
fair-complexioned, tidy, blue-eyed dame from the isle of Jersey. Wear- 
ing a huge sun-bonnet, she was feeding her chickens in the road as we 
approached. She served us a simple but savory repast in a cozy, low- 
roofed dining-room resembling a ship's cabin ; through the open windows 
the sea-breeze wafted the roar of the sea, and we could look on the blue 
of the ocean fading away to distant lands. Everything was delightfully 
unexpected and charming. Sea life is made up of such contrasts. But 
a few hours before, we were groping in a fog, grappling with a storm and 
shortening sail ; and now we were enjoying this peaceful hour in a tran- 
quil haven. 



II. 



AT the close of the preceding chapter we were about entering upon 
an inspection of Paspebiac. As the name indicates, this was, first 
of all, an Indian settlement, probably of the Gaspesian tribe. The 
terminal ac is indicative of place, like the affixes eck or ccqne and adic em- 
ployed by the Micmacs. The French came next, followed by the Nor- 
mans of the Channel Islands. It is to these that this straggling, thriving 
town of three thousand people owes its present existence and success. We 
had never heard of the place before, and yet here it has existed for centu- 
ries, a center of business and a wonder of beauty, on the supposed bleak 
shores of the Bay of Chaleurs. We found the key-note of the whole matter 
immediately on landing. One hundred and forty years ago some capital- 
ists of St. Helier's came over from Jersey and established a depot for cod- 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 29 

fishing on the inner shore of the point of Paspebiac, where boats could 
land with safety in ordinary weather. Since then, empires have arisen and 
fallen, our own great republic has come into existence and has grown to 
its present dimensions, and still the firm of Robin & Co. carries on its busi- 
ness with the vitahty of youth, and with steadiness of purpose and entire 
unconcern regarding the rest of the world and its affairs. Not only does 
the original family of Robin maintain itself at Paspebiac to this day, but it 
has thirteen other establishments as complete as this one at various points 
in the maritime provinces, all conducted with the same system and disci- 
pline. We saw several of these depots at other ports during our cruise, and 
can therefore say that the one at Paspebiac is typical of the whole. A 
lofty fence with gates incloses the establishment. Within are immense 
buildings for storing the fish and storehouses for all the materials that go 
to the building and victualing of ships, besides smithies and carpenters' 
shops, a large kitchen and eating-hall, a telegraph office, and the houses of 
the overseer and chief employes. On the harbor side are extensive 
wharves, landings, cranes, and the like, built of solid masonry and iron. 
There is nothing flimsy about the materials and construction of any object 
about the place. The extraordinarv neatness of everything is like that of 
a Dutch house. There is not even the odor of stale fish, or of any fish at 
all. The workmen wear a uniform — consisting of white trousers and blue 
blouse and cap — and thereby strengthen the first thought that occurs on 
seeing the place, that it must be an arsenal. This impression is re-enforced 
by the cannon ranged on the quay, and by the fierce figure of a Scotch 
Highlander brandishing his claymore from the gable of the central build- 
ing, which was once the figure-head of one of the company's ships. The 
discipline of a man-of-war is also strictly preserved here. The employes 
enter in boyhood and work their way up. Here it is, in this yard, that 
the firm builds the fleet which it employs to carry the fish to the markets 
of Europe and South America. No finer fish leave the shores of North 
America for the feeding of good Roman Catholics on fast days. Few peo- 
ple have reflected on the fact that one of the most important occupations 
followed by men is almost whoU}^ dependent on the religious beUefs of one 
sect. The small amount of salt cod eaten by Protestants is not worth 
mentioning compared with the amount absorbed by Roman Catholics. 
Besides their ships for foreign transportation, the Robins also have a large 
number of schooners and boats directly engaged in catching the fish. 
Most of the fishermen in their employ are poor, and, as they are paid in 
kind, they are largely in the power of this great monopoly. As one result, 
it is very difficult to purchase land at Paspebiac, because a large part of 



30 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



the freeholds there are mortgaged to Robin & Co. on account of advances 
made to the fishermen. 

Adjoining the estabhshment of Robin cS: Co. is a similar but less exten- 
sive fish depot, belonging to the firm of Le Boutillier, who are also a Jer- 
sey company, transacting their affairs in the Dominion by means of expe- 
rienced factors. The original founder of the house was trained by Robin 
& Co., and, having a difference with them, started a rival house, which is 
conducted with similar system and owns three or four stations. The 




l-'isht'niioi at rasptbiac. 



gradual dying out of the Le Boutillier family indicates, however, the ap- 
proaching extinction of this firm. To an American familiar with the fish- 
ing business of Gloucester, Massachusetts, who imagines that the enterprise 
of that thriving port has contrived to absorb a monopoly of the cod-fisher- 
ies of the world, there is somethmg rather mortifying in considering for 
the first time such an establishment as the one I have described ; for it 
shows that we have yet a few things to learn in regard to making a business 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 3 1 

at once prosperous and permanent. I met a man once in England who 
was traveling for a tobacco house that was estabhshed in the time of Queen 
Elizabeth and was still engaged in making money. After all, there is a 
majesty and dignity in the grand fact of permanency that is worth striving 
for, in a world and an age that is ever shifting. We like to dream some- 
times that not " virtue alone outlives the Pyramids." 

After having been shown about the establishment of Robin & Co., we 
turned our attention to other matters of interest at Paspebiac, and found 
that it abounds in natural attractions. The sandy point is really an island 
at high water, and a substantial bridge connects it with the main-land. 
Near to the bridge are the residences occupied by the members of the two 
fishing firms, when at Paspebiac, or by their agents. The Robin mansion 
is near the foot of the slope, completely surrounded by a lovely grove 
agreeably intersected with winding paths. The Le Boutillier house, on 
the other hand, is on the brow of the rich brown cliff, superbly situated, 
and commanding an outlook over the Bay of Chaleurs. It is approached 
from the road through a double avenue of noble willows, which were im- 
ported, we were informed, from Jersey. There is not a private residence 
in the Dominion which occupies a finer site for a summer villa. From the 
bridge, the road rises abruptly until it reaches the crest of the slope. There 
it meets a post road, or street, running along that height for twenty miles 
toward Dalhousie. It is along this road that the town of Paspebiac, occu- 
pied by French habitants, is laid out in an extended street, which contin- 
ues until it reaches the charming semi-aristocratic hamlet of New Carlisle, 
which is occupied bv Scotch people, and is the seat of a court-house, a jail, 
and the residence of the judge. 

We decided that we could get over more ground that afternoon by 
means of a carriage than on foot. But the only vehicle to be found was a 
ramshackle open carry-all belonging to the postmaster — a jolly, vivacious 
little Frenchman, whose excellent English speech was yet curiously char- 
acterized by an accent. The horse was a fit subject for the attention of 
Henry Bergh, and the carriage was so ancient and dilapidated that the 
spring broke down and the floor split with the weight of five healthy men. 
But we had a delightful ride to New Carlisle, for all that. The afternoon 
was so fine that it seemed to have an invigorating effect on the piety of 
the local clergy. We met the Presbyterian minister, the Episcopal vicar, 
and the ciin^ all engaged in making pastoral visits. The first was in a 
buggy accompanied by his wife. The other gentlemen, in spotless garb, 
trudged along the highway, alone and on foot, after apostolic fashion. The 
physician was also making his rounds on a buckboard. On our return, the 



32 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



postmaster invited us into his humble cottage, which was typical of all the 
houses at Paspebiac. His best room was decorated with cheap images 
and prints of the Virgin. The office was in a small adjoining apartment. 
When a letter was to be mailed, it was taken at the door by some one of 
the family. We noticed here, as well as in almost every other house in the 
town, and, in fact, throughout that region, that the windows were always 
kept tightly closed, even at midday with the mercury at seventy-five to 
eighty-five degrees. Consequently, the air inside is stuff)' and oppressive. 
For those who may like to visit Paspebiac, it may be well to add that it 
can be reached by the stage-coach from Dalhousie, which makes the dis- 




The Beach at Paspebiac. 



A View of the Bay. 



•tance of eighty-two miles thrice a week; time, twenty-two hours. Better 
still, there is a steamer from Dalhousie semi-weekly, which touches there 
in its trip around the Bay of Chaleurs. As we were passing along the road 
at four o'clock, the village school broke up and the children bounded forth 
full of glee, the boys separating into one group and the girls into another. 
But it was beautiful to see them come to a sudden stop when they met us, 
the boys in a row on one side of the road and the girls on the other. Then, 
with the utmost respect, the former bowed, while the latter demurely 
courtesied. Having accomplished this feat, they all ran off again in a de- 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



Z7i 



lightful manner. After all, we can learn a little from the Latins, without 
being untrue to our Anglo-Saxon convictions. 

The following day being Saturday, we had a capital opportunity to see 
the habitants of Paspebiac in their best attire, for that is their market day. 
This really means, in that place, that on that day the two fishing firms 
make advances of goods to the families of the fishermen they employ. 
The women came in groups, the matrons garrulous with gossip as they 
straggled down the road with the heavy swinging gait which they have 
inherited from the peasants of France. It is curious how the peasant 
classes change their step with age, the light tripping of the young maiden 
turning into a long, ungainly stride. The piquant brunettes, still in the 
morning of life, also collected thither in clusters, toileted in their best, and 



fc---i-^?^%^r-^^":**s^ 







"i^ 






A Fish Establishment at Paspebiac. 



giggling and blushing with zest when some handsome young fisherman 
went by, throwing a sentimental glance in their direction, or venturing 
some sally of rustic wit. Many came in rude carts, drawn by oxen or 
mares followed by their colts. Across the bridge or fording the inlet, 
these simple folk came in a steady stream until toward noon. It was, for 
all the world, like a bit of France, for these French habitants change far 
less from the original type than the English settlers. Later in the day 
there was a general movement to the other end of the point, where the 
fish-market was held on the beach. Dogs, swine, geese, fowls, men, women, 
children, carts and oxen were here gathered indiscriminately on the sand 
by the surf, in a promiscuous and chattering crowd around the stands, 
3 



34 THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

where fresh fish were being cleaned for sale. A merry sensation was 
produced when a boisterous youth dashed by at a tearing gallop on horse- 
back, shouting Yankee Doodle at the top of his voice. This was intended 
as a salvo for us, the first American tourists, possibly, who had ever 
been to Paspebiac. A gentleman connected with the custom-house, which 
is a wee bit of a hut, officiates as United States consular agent, and was 
very polite to us. But it is a question whether his annual fees amount to 
enough to pay for the matches for lighting his pipe. 

Some of our party were enthusiastic anglers, and the afternoon was 
therefore devoted to a long and heated walk to a trout brook, where those 
sportive fish Avere reported to be actually pining to be caught. The rods 
and flies were of the best quality, and they were wielded by fishermen of 
skill and experience. The net results of the trip amounted, however, to 
only half a dozen five-inch trout. We were told that, in a lake beyond, the 
trout were so numerous there was hardly room for them to swim without 
scraping the scales off their backs as they jostled each other. But the 
enthusiasm of our fishermen being now at its ebb, we returned to the 
schooner and ordered the captain to make sail. 

If the wind had been favorable, we should have continued up to the 
head of the Bay of Chaleurs. But it was a long beat with the stiff north- 
west wind that was blowing at the time, and other and more distant scenes 
forbade us to linger here. Therefore we put the helm up and ran to the 
eastward. The wind w^as fresh, and the schooner was staggering under 
the pressure of her kites, and required delicate steering. Rapidly we flew 
past the beautiful northern shore of the ba}-, the jagged peaks assuming 
the loveliest of tints in the light of the sun, now nearing the west. But 
our race was suddenly checked. I was looking through the glass at a 
schooner two miles away, when I saw that she was sailing with a different 
wind. Hardly had I time to sing out to the captain, " The wind's coming 
out ahead ! " than our vessel was taken sharp aback. Everything was at 
once in confusion. " Let go the guy tackle ! " " Take in the stay-sail ! " 
" Haul aft the main-sheet ! " were orders quickly given, and in another 
minute the Alice May was heeling well over, and pitching in a head-sea. 
Now occun-ed a series of magnificent marine effects. Brief squalls of 
wind and rain followed in quick succession ; the cliffs and the sea were 
alternately black with brooding gloom or gleaming with blinding bursts of 
sunlight ; rainbows hung on the skirts of the clouds in the offing, and the 
driving masses of cumuli were warmed by glorious hues. Then succeeded 
a sight not uncommon in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but which, wherever 
seen, inspires the beholder with awe. The sea in the distance appeared 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



35 



suddenl}^ to roll up with a high, angry surge, advancing rapidly toward us 
as if it would overwhelm the vessel, and naturally suggesting that a very 
strong wind was coming. But it advanced no farther, always preserving 
the same appearance, as if held back by some mysterious agency ; and we 




now perceived that it 
was a form of mirage, 
probably 

the surf breaking on 
a distant shore. The 
turbulence of the 
elements subsided al- 
most as soon as it had 
arisen, and then we 
had barely enough 
wind to waft us to 

Port Daniel. The anchorage here being very exposed, we did not remain 
there, but only " looked in," as sailors say. This is a fishing village, situ- 
ated around a deep cove, which lies at the foot of one of the highest and 
most abrupt peaks on the bay. The church occupies a hillock at the 



Fishing-Houses at Cape Gasp^. 



36 THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

bottom of the cove, and the houses are beautifully situated on precipitous 
slopes and ledges. 

Light and baffling airs now followed, and we spent the greater part of 
Sunday off Cape Despair. There was a most exasperating glassy swell, 
which tumbled the vessel about unmercifully. It is said that this swell very 
rarely goes down at this part of the Gulf. In the morning Captain Welsh 
sat at the wheel reading his prayer-book while steering. He was in one 
of his communicative moods, and spun yarn for some time. He expressed 
the emphatic opinion that " tobacco is good for some folks." He was sure 
it had been a benefit to him in the long night watches and the life struggle 
with storms. All day long, the grandly bold, abrupt precipices of Mt. St. 
Anne at Perce towered before us like a mighty fortress, guarding the 
double entrance to the Bay of Chaleurs and the River St. Lawrence. At 
its foot is the lofty island of Bonaventure, around which we passed with a 
light air on the night of July 17. At sunrise we were close to the tre- 
mendous rock of Perce, and could see the long, low outline of Anticosti in 
the north like a gray wall. In the opinion of our captain, the heavy swell 
made it inexpedient to anchor at Perce, which is very exposed. We kept 
on across Mai Bay, past a low, flat islet which the French call Plateau, 
and the English fishermen Plato, which is evidently a corruption of the 
former word. A number of large fishing stations are here, and the fleet 
of fishing boats was now seen shooting out from the coves after the cod 
which abound in this bay. These boats are large, and are manned by two 
men ; they are rigged with three spritsails and a jib, which gives them 
the jauntiest look of all the fishing boats on the coast of America. This 
matter of the rig and build of fishing boats is very curious. It is easy to 
see that the character of a certain beach or of the prevailing weather may 
in a given locality affect the shape of the boat ; but why there should be 
such differences in rig is incomprehensible. The fishing boats of every 
port we visited had their peculiar rig and sails. We can understand how 
whim may incline this or that man to prefer one rig to another ; but why 
all the boats of one port should uniformly have one rig, while in the very 
port adjoining all the boats have entirely another rig, is a matter which is 
not easily explained. 

As the wind died away, we anchored near the southern side of Gaspe 
Bay to avoid drifting. Water-fowl abounded. In endless flocks the ducks 
fly at morning to the fen-lands at the head of the bay, and return at night 
to roost amid the rocks of Perce. We went on shore and succeeded in 
bagging a few ducks and sea-pigeons under the cliffs ; after which we 
chmbed up the heights to a farmhouse and procured some milk. The 



THE CRUISE OE THE ALICE MAY. 



37 



people could not speak English. The babies and the sucking- pigs were 
tumbling over each other under the table in affectionate embrace. Outside 
was the oven, a characteristic feature of domestic civilization \\\ Gaspe 

County. It is built thus : A flat slab of 
limestone is laid on four posts, and a 
dome of clay is built over it. This ni 
turn is protected from the rains by a 
thatched roof. These rustics were 
specimen bricks of the people who live 
around the bay. The population of 
this part of Canada is confined wholly 
to the coast. Civilization ceases a mile 




Head of an Old Pilot. 



Up Gaspc Bay. 



or two inland, and the bear, the caribou,, and the panther still roam 
through the primeval woods which cover the mountain ranges of the inte- 
rior. The aborigines of this region were the Gaspesian Indians, who now 
appear to be entirely extinct. 

A breeze springing up toward noon, we stood across the bay to Cape 
Gaspe, a noble gray headland three hundred feet high, which from one 
point looks like the front of a Gothic cathedral. By keeping past it a 
short distance, we entered the River St. Lawrence and saw Cape Rozier, a 
tremendous precipice soaring seven hundred feet vertically. Cape Gaspe 
takes the full brunt of all the gales of the St. Lawrence, and has been the 
scene of many wild and appalling wrecks. Some years ago, on a storm}^ 



T^S THE CRUISE OE THE ALICE MAY. 

night, the tide being unusually high, a vessel was swept against the cliff, 
and, of course, entirely destroyed. The event never would have been 
known if the bowsprit had not been discovered in a cleft of the rock, far 
above the usual level of the sea, together with remains of the bodies of 
the crew. After this we stood up the bay, along the northern shore. For 
several miles the cliffs are seamed with deep fissures, as if the beach had 
been partitioned off by walls into retired marine alcoves with soft, sandy 
floors, where the mermaids could perform their toilets in seclusion. But, 
generally, these recesses are occupied by curious and often highly pictur- 
esque fish-drying houses, built over the water on extensive stagings. An 
extraordinary accident occurred here thirty years ago. A ship bound up 
to Quebec grounded off these cliffs in a fog. The wind was light, but 
there was a high swell, which made it dangerous to land. Fifteen gentle- 
men, however, concluded to go on shore, and with the boat's crew got into 
the boat before it was lowered. One of the poles broke, and they were all 
precipitated into the water. The tide drew them under the ship, and they 
were all drowned before the very eyes of their wives and children. Some 
weeks after, a fisherman caught a cod in whose maw was a man's finger, 
with the diamond ring yet glittering on the severed joint. 

Here we landed to sketch the fish-houses. The shores were very 
precipitous, and it required some circumspection to climb up where the 
houses of the country folk are perched. We had some difficulty on return- 
ing to the schooner, as the wind had risen, creating a high sea rolling in 
from the Gulf, and the schooner was handled in such a clumsy manner that 
the boat was in serious danger of being run clown. Our crew were not 
accustomed to this sort of service. There was yet time to reach Gaspe 
before dark if the strong breeze held, which was sweeping us up the bay. 
Near Port Douglas, where General Wolfe anchored his fleet on his way to 
Quebec, the scenery began to develop extraordinary beauty. Nothing of 
the sort has so impressed me except the neighborhood of Lake George. 
The shores were graduall}^ closing in, and on either hand and ahead of us 
were mountains descending to the sea, draped in the dark-green mantle of 
the densest woods. Here and there a little church might be seen perched 
on a height. At last we reached the light-ship, and in a few minutes we 
would have been clear of the bar and heading directly into Gaspe Basin. 
" Are you sure you are heading right, captain ? Aren't you keeping too 
near inside? " we said to the captain. " Oh, no ; there's plenty of water ; I 
guess we are going all right," he replied. At that instant the schooner 
struck on the bar, and ran her bow up on the sand, with a dull grating 
sound that made us sufficiently disgusted. A ship is only good afloat. A 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY 



39 




Perce Rock. 



40 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



ship on shore is Hke an eagle with a broken pinion. We were in for it this 
time, there was too much reason to believe, for it was about high water, 
and the breeze was making a chop on the bar. Two circumstances were 
in our favor : the night promised to be fine, and Captain Asca, the light- 
house keeper, who now came on board, was an experienced skipper, and 
was thoroughly acquainted with the bay. Every effort to haul the 
schooner off the shoal proving of no avail, we should have been obhged to 
heave out her ballast if the next tide had not promised to be unusually 
high, the change of the moon being at hand. Since nothing more could 




An Old Oven. 



be done until the next tide, we 
therefore accepted Captain As- 
ca's invitation to go to his 
house. The hour and the scene 
were so enchanting that we 
were quite compensated for the 
inauspicious circumstances that 
detained us there. 
Captain Asca was a fine specimen of a Scotchman ; tall and large- 
limbed ; his tawny, flowing beard was tinged with the snow of sixty win- 
ters, but his keen, steel-gray eye had in it the fire of youth, and his voice 
rang across the ship with the firmness of one born to command. And yet 
his life had been passed in coasters and fishermen. Both of his grand- 
fathers were in the army which stormed Quebec under Wolfe. His rela- 
tion to the light-ship was an anomaly in the history of harbor lighting. 



THE CRUISE OE THE ALICE MAY. 



41 



for he both built the vessel and owned it, besides keeping it for a meager 
allowance granted by the Dominion. A curious way, this, for a govern- 
ment to light a harbor by private enterprise ! His father's grist-mill Avas 
on the seaside, romantically filling the entrance of a ravine, where a moun- 
tain stream dashed down near a bar, over which we rowed across the 
rolling foam. The new moon hung in the west, and the deep glow of 
twilight yet throbbed over the mountains, as we climbed a winding, wooded 




Cu)~in^ Fish at Perce. 



path to Captain Asca's house. His pet parrot had come down to meet 
him, and was waiting on the stile for his master, on whose shoulder it 
alighted, while the dog, with a bark of welcome for his master and a sus- 
picious sniff for us, bounded down the slope to meet us. We were cor- 
dially invited to enter the house, and were pleased to see an immense fire- 
place across one third of the kitchen wall ; but we preferred to sit on 



42 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



the door-step, 
Av h e r e the 
Hght- keeper's 
daughter 
brought us a 
pitcher of 
fresh milk. 
Behind the 
house the dark 
/ woods arose, 
clothed with 
shadows ; be- 
fore vis and at our feet lay 
Gaspe Bay and our little 
schooner ; beyond — north, east, 
and south — were Gaspe, the 
Dartmouth Riv^er, and the moun- 
tams fading into night. A great 
quiet reigned over all the land- 
scape. Its tranquillity and beauty 
were ideal. We felt like saying, 
" Whv should we longer roam ? " 
But fate and the ship called 
us away. In the middle watch 
the tide happily floated the 
schooner, and under the pilot- 
age of Captain Asca, who 
left the light-ship 
^^^ j,^^ ^ i" charge of 

an assistant, 
we glided in- 
to the harbor 
of Gaspe, called the basin, as it is so snug and sheltered. Gaspe is built on 
the sloping sides of the Basin. It has eight hundred inhabitants, a mayor, 
and a United States consul. The houses are embowered in shrubbery, 
and the little town is really very attractive. All business has left it, and it 
is now in a state of somnolescence. But, like places which have had a pe- 
riod of prosperity, it retains a certain aristocratic air, and the society is 
agreeable and refined. The people are largely descended from loyalists 
of the Revolution. The place is three days' ride from the nearest railway 




Returning from Chttrch. 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 43 

station. A railway would doubtless greatly add to its prosperity by 
bringing tourists there, for at present it has only a semi-weekly steamer 
and a daily stage-coach. The winters are long and the snows deep, and 
the people of both sexes go to church on snow-shoes, which they leave 
stacked up in the porch during the services. But the summer is temper- 
ate, while the scenery, the fishing, and the moderate cost of living combine 
to make Gaspe a place of unusual attraction. I am thoroughly assured 
that no one would be disappointed who should make it a summer resort. 
The fisheries of Gaspe are chiefly in the hands of the Le Boutilliers, who 
have the finest residence there. The fish are chiefly exported to Brazil. 
They are not packed in tierces, but in tubs, to suit the mode of transpor- 
tation in South America. Two of these tubs make a mule load. 

The good people of Gaspe are greatly moved to devise some scheme 
to restore their departed prosperity. They are agreed in the opinion that 
a railroad would do it, and the matter comes up before each political 
election. Theodolites, chains, spirit-levels, pickaxes, surveyors, and labor- 
ers appear, and the candidate is profuse in his enthusiasm for the railroad. 
After the election is over, the question is laid on the shelf, and the enthu- 
siasm is bottled up and kept to help the candidate into office another year. 
Human nature is pretty much the same, the world over. 

Our consul, Mr. Holt, was very courteous toward us, and exerted him- 
self to entertain us. We decided to spend a day in trout-fishing, for which 
the neighborhood is noted, and all the consular influence was brought to 
bear to procure a suitable vehicle to carry us to the fishing stream six 
miles distant. But horses and carriages seemed to be the scarcest articles 
in Gaspe County. We had about given up expectation of finding a con- 
veyance, but were still discussing the question in the shady street, when a 
wood-cart came by. 

Our party presented a truly backwoods aspect as we rode through the 
streets of Gaspe down to the ferry, coiled up on the floor of this rude 
vehicle. The St. John's, to which we were bound, lies on the side of 
Gaspe Basin opposite the town, and the cart had to be taken over in the 
ferry-boat. The grasping owner of the Gaspe ferry-boat line had not only 
contrived to obtain a monopoly of the business, but had also managed to 
get all the stock into his own hands. Judging from the leakiness of the 
boat, the stock seemed to have been pretty well " watered." The propel- 
ling power of this crazy flat-boat was represented by a lad of thirteen and 
a mere shaver of seven or eight summers. But they managed to get us 
over without accident, which was more than I anticipated. The monopo- 
list aforementioned had grown so wealthy off the business that he had 



44 THE CRUISE OE THE ALICE MAY. 

built himself a house, which commanded a fine view of the river. In 
order to save grovmd-rent or taxes in a country which is now so densely 
populated that there is probably one inhabitant to every ten square miles, 
he had built his mansion on a raft anchored by the shore. The house was 
twelve feet square, and was divided into two ample apartments. There, 
in quiet, unmolested, and luxurious seclusion, this aquatic Crcesus was 
seen smoking his clay pipe in his own door, while his faithful wife and 
daughter cooked his meals, and his boys raked in the dividends for him 
by rowing the ferry-boat. 

We had a warm ride of two hours through the spruce forests on a 
mountainous road. The air was redolent of the fragrance of the gum 
exuding from the trees. I could not avoid noticing how much more rare 
singing birds were in these forests than in New England. But the moun- 




J'ci'lc Kock. [Di'ui^'ii by fhoinas iMomn.) 

tain glens abounded, we were told, with game. An English sportsman 
killed forty-eight caribou in these wilds during one season. 

The St. John's is one of the three rivers emptying into Gaspe Bay. 
The others are the York, which empties into Gaspe Basin, and the Dart- 
mouth, which finds an outlet at the head of the bay. Each of these rivers 
has a romantic beauty of its own, and all are said to abound in trout and 
salmon. These reports are given for what they are worth. My own belief 
in the trout-yielding properties of a stream depends upon actual and 
personal observation. I have found that so enormous is the capacit)^ for 
exaggeration of the so-called " trout-liar," that I would sooner believe a 
horse-jockey or the captain of a yacht. I therefore decHne to assume 
responsibility for any of the rumors I may quote regarding fresh-water 
fishing in the Dominion. 

At midday our expedition at last stood on the banks of the St. John's, 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



45 




Map of the Cruise. {Paspcbiac to the Magdalen Isles.) 



and gazed with exultation upon its rushing current. The stream is a 
hundred yards wide at that point. There were woods on each bank, 
which echoed back the musical carillon of the rapids. We found a boat- 
keeper's lodge there and a num- 
ber of canoes. The canoes 
used now by the sportsmen in 
that region are shaped exactly 
like the typical Indian birch- 
bark canoe ; they are not made 
of bark, however, but of thin 
cedar planking, on a light frame 
of oak or ash. Two of the 
party went down the stream in 
a canoe with the guides, whom 
we found living in the lodge, 
while Burns and I whipped the 
stream from the banks. After 

a protracted trial, neither attempt was attended with such success as to 
kindle the enthusiasm of which we were capable under favorable circum- 
stances. The guides assured us, however, that farther up the stream there 
was no end of large trout. This assurance failed to make the impression 
it might have done if we had been at liberty to cast a fly in that part of 
the river. But it was leased to a number of Boston gentlemen, and not 
even the proprietor of the adjoining banks could fish there without being 
liable for trespass. It may be seriously doubted whether so much money 
goes into the Dominion, annually, by the leasing of the streams as if all 
tourists were allowed to fish anywhere during the season. Each tourist 
and sportsman brings money into the country, which is, indeed, sadly in 
need of it. Now, I maintain that the large number of sportsmen who would 
come there during a season if allowed to fish without restriction, would 
bring more money into the coimtry than the revenue now derived from 
leasing the streams to a few dozen gentlemen. Of course, this view of the 
question must be to a degree hypothetical. But there can be no question 
that it is a monstrous usurpation of the rights of property for a govern- 
ment to usurp the power to lease away the riparian rights of an owner to 
the half of a non-navigable stream that runs by or through his own lands. 

We found compensation for our poor luck with the rod in the ravenous 
appetite with which we returned to the good supper awaiting us on the 
schooner. The weather being fine, we decided to move, and ordered the 
captain to make sail and drop down the bay toward Perce, when the land 



46 THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

breeze arose with the turn of the tide. Being becahned off Point Epitre, 
we anchored to avoid being drawn ashore by the swell. The time was 
well spent in visiting the extensive fishing establishments, one of which 
belongs to a. clergyman. The following night a breeze sprang up, but it 
was accompanied by a dense fog. The fates seemed to be opposed to our 
visiting Perce. But we had taken Captain Asca with us as pilot, until we 
should leave Gaspe Bay, and felt confident that his familiarity with those 
shores would get us safely to Perce. He was certainly feeling his way by 
the aid of some sixth sense, for at sunrise it was impossible to imagine that 
we were near land except from the vast, unbroken procession of water- 
fowl trending northwest to their feeding grounds at the head of Gaspe 
Bay. But, firmly grasping the wheel, and gazing with eagle eye into the 
fog, Captain Asca kept the schooner going, until we could hear the dull 
boom of surf tumbhng into the caves of the cliffs. There is sometimes 
about the effects of nature an apparent sensationalism which would be 
highly censured if attempted by any reputable artist ; but she carries it off 
so well that we accept it and readily admit that she does it in a way that 
" defies competition." We had a striking example of this fact on this very 
morning. For just as the pilot said, " I guess we are getting in pretty 
handy to it ; we'll take a cast of the lead," the fog parted as if by magic, 
rolling away on either hand like a curtain, and where, one instant, nothing 
was to be seen, the next a superb spectacle lay revealed before us. The 
village of Perce lay not half a mile distant, reposing at the foot of the 
grand overhanging precipices of Mount St. Anne, whose base terminated 
at the shore in mighty, precipitous, sea-beaten cliffs ; while on the other 
side soared the tremendous bulk of the famous Perce Rock, dun and terri- 
ble against the morning sun, presenting altogether the most varied and 
effective view on the Atlantic coast of North America. 

" Let go the anchor," cried the pilot at once, and down rattled the 
cable, in fifteen fathoms. At last we had arrived at Perce. 

There is no harbor there. The mountain range of Gaspe County 
terminates with Mount St. Anne, which makes to a point, rounded off by a 
low cliff. Directly off this point, and detached from it at high water, is 
the rock. Ships can make a lee of it in good weather, dodging from one 
side to the other according to the changes of the wind ; but it is not long 
enough to make a lee in severe weather, and the sea rolls around it. A 
ship lying there, which it would only do in summer, must therefore watch 
carefully every shift of the wind. 

Perce is a shire town. The houses are cheap wooden structures, but 
the appearance of the place from the water is foreign. It is shut in by the 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



47 



mountains on the land side. The large Roman Catholic church occupies 
an eminence in the center of the town ; and the court-house is also a 
prominent object. Mount St. Anne is peculiarly shaped. A steep, dense- 
ly wooded slope rises from the town to a height of nearly one thousand 
feet, and terminates in a perpendicular cliff richly hued with iron tints, 
which crowns it like a Roman fortress and soars to a height of fourteen 
hundred feet. Perce Rock derives its name, as any one familiar with the 
French language would at once perceive, from the immense arch which 
pierces it near the eastern end. There w^as yet another arch thirty years 
ago ; but it fell in during an earthquake, and left one side of it a separate 
rock. A columnar rock called the " Old Woman," off Cape Gaspe, was 
overthrown by the same convulsion. Before this event it was possible to 
reach the summit of Perce Rock, but at present it must be considered 
inaccessible. One or two daring fishermen have succeeded in performing 
the feat ; but several have been killed in the attempt, and to try to scale it 
is now forbidden. There is a legend that the rock is haunted by a spirit, 
who may be seen on stormy nights hovering over the summit. Of this I 
do not feel at liberty to speak with certainty, not having seen this water- 
wraith myself. Perhaps it was to counteract the unceasing influence of 
this mysterious being that an immense iron cross was erected on the point 
immediately adjoining the rock. But whatever the facts regarding its 
supernatural denizens, this can be afihrmed with certainty — the summit is 
peopled b}' an innumerable and loquacious colony of sea-birds. Their 
clanging never ceases until dark, and may be heard for miles and miles, 
blending with the roar of the tireless surf. Perce rock is about a furlong 
in length and three hundred and twenty feet high. The abruptness of its 
shape makes it seem much more lofty. The rock is sublime in shadow — 
a dark and tremendous bulk. But it is gloriously beautiful in the sunlight. 
The former conveys an effect of grandeur, the latter brings out the variety 
and brilliance of the coloring. It abounds in ferruginous tints. Golden- 
yellow, copper-reds, ochres, leaden and roseate grays are either distinct or 
deliciously blended in a grand mosaic on this marvelous wall, where 
Nature has shown what she dares in the way of color. On a clear after- 
noon, when the skv and sea are a deep, dream v purple and azure, the 
beauty of Perce Rock baffles description. A foil or background to the 
picture is the isle of Bonaventure, a mile distant. The afternoon light 
bathes its bold outline with the most ethereal roseate grays, which affect 
the soul like the strains of tender song. The time is coming when Perce 
will be painted and sung and celebrated like the already famed resorts of 
the Old World. 



48 THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

While we were at Perce we climbed up to the summit of Mount St. 
Anne. It is a long afternoon walk ; but there is nothing difficult about it 
until within three or four hundred feet of the top, when it becomes very 
steep. The prospect is one of great extent and of enchanting loveliness. 
On one side one gazes down on Perce and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and 
on the other he looks down the gorges of the Canadian mountains, which 
fade away in unexplored solitude into the distant west. 

The fisheries at Perce gfive to it the animation of human life. But, ex- 
cepting for the picturesqueness of the fieet of boats going out and return- 
ing, I should greatly prefer the whole business at another place ; for the 
smell of the decaying fish on the north beach is not an inspiring odor, al- 
though it is a curious and interesting sight when the boats come home to 
watch the women and children flocking to the beach and helping the 
sterner sex to clean the cod. The women sometimes protect their skirts 
when cleaning fish by getting into empty barrels ! The occasion is also 
one of mirth and sly sparking ; we detected our crew engaged in this prof- 
itless pursuit when they were sent ashore to fill the water-casks. A sailor 
is never quite so comical as when he is making love to a girl on shore. 
There is a massive bluntness to his speech, a self-confident diffidence in his 
manner which is exceedingly funny. Giving another turn to the quid in 
his cheek, and cocking his cap on the back of his head, to gain an appear- 
ance of nonchalance. Bill sidled up toward a tittering girl who, with knife 
in hand, was splitting fresh cod, and could not get away from him at once, 
because she was buried up to her armpits in a fish-barrel. Before long 
they had struck up a brisk confabulation. Finally, Bill lifted the girl out 
of her cage, and helped to carry home her basket of fish. The south beach 
of Perce is more neat, and far less inodorous. Robin & Co. have one of 
their fine establishments there ; and to say that, is equivalent to giving the 
synonym of neatness. Their drying-yard is spread with pebbles brought 
from the shores of Jersev, which are preferable to a bed of sand, as it 
allows the air to steal under the fish, and hastens the process of drying. 
When the fish are brought in they are thrown into pens, one for each boat. 
Thus the respective quantity belonging to each is easily ascertained. 
When the fish are salted, they are carefully laid in separate rows ; and after 
they have been dried on the stages or lath platforms, they are piled in 
neat stacks, protected by birch bark. One can not fully realize what an 
extensive and laborious occupation the cod-fisheries are, and how large is 
the number of men and the amount of capital emploj^ed in them, until he 
has cruised over the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Robin & Co. also have an 
establishment at Bonaventure Island. 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 49 

The sweetest hour at Perce is when the sun has just set, and the tips 
of the ruddy cliffs are yet warmed by its glow. The hyaline swell lan- 
guidly kisses the shore ; the new moon hangs in the west ; the shadows 
creep like a mantle over St. Anne's velvet-like slopes, and cast a veil over 
the town ; the toll of the angehis from the church tower floats musically 
over the sea, and the lights quiver on the ocean's tranquil bosom. Easily 
could we have lingered at this delightful spot for months, but the wind 
shifted so as to place us on the weather side of the Rock, bringing with it 
a dangerous swell, A dark cloud, brooding intensely over Mount vSt. 
Anne at midnight, also suggested a possible squall, a thing to be carefully 
avoided at Perce, where the ffaws from the mountain are sudden and vio- 
lent. The watch was called, and we made sail and put to sea. 

Hitherto our cruising had been along the western coast of the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence. But now, with a fresh northwest breeze, Ave headed east 
by south for the Magdalen Islands, which lie nearly in the center of the 
Gulf, about two hundred miles from Perce. At daybreak we were out of 
sight of land, and the wind fell almost to a calm. We were now out of 
the track of vessels, and saw none. But there were plenty of whales sport- 
ing clumsily about us. Toward night we sighted a water-logged wreck 
at a great distance. We were at supper when it was discovered. On 
learning of it when we went on deck, we at once ordered the helm to be 
put down, and turned back in hope of reaching the wreck before the long 
twilight should conceal it from view. But the wind was so light we made 
little progress. There were no evidences of life about the wreck, which 
was probably a schooner ; only the stump of the foremast remained above 
the deck. The hulk lay very deep in the water, and wallowed in 
the languid swell as if liable to go down at any moment. There is 
something indescribably melancholy about an abandoned wreck at sea. 
We kept up the slow chase for several hours, in the bare hope that, if any 
one was yet lingering on board, we might rescue him. But we lost sight 
of the wreck before we could reach it ; probably it simk. Soon after, the 
moon went down, and a mysterious starry gloaming settled over the sea. 
The night was superb. Never were the stars more brilliant, or the silvery 
clouds of the Galaxy more sublime in the southern heavens. Above a 
dark bank of cloud in the north, the northern lights flashed like a green- 
ish fire. The eerie chattering of Mother Gary's chickens in our wake was 
all the sound that blended with the ripple of the water as the schooner 
fanned along with a light air in her serge-like sails. At midnight a sough- 
ing wind from the south piped up in the shrouds. Deeming it useless to 
grope longer for the wreck, and anxious to take advantage of a fair wind, 
4 



50 THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAVr 

we headed once more on our course. At dawn the A//ce May was tum- 
bling headlong over the heavy seas, staggering under a press of sail, and 
taking in torrents of water through her lee ports and scuppers. Every 
one was on the lookout for land, alow and aloft. As the sun burst over the 
sea, a faint hazy line was discerned, looming above the horizon. It proved 
to be Deadman's Island, the most westerly of the group for which we were 
heading. It is indeed a singular rock, about a mile long. Not a herb, nor 
a bush, nor a blade of grass is to be seen on its rocky sides, which rise to 
a sharp, razor-like ridge in the center. Seen from its side, the island bears 
a vivid resemblance to a giant body laid on its back and covered by a 
sheet, and is a fit subject to inspire the wild fancies of superstitious mari- 
ners. Toward noon we slacked off the main-sheet, and ran for the narrow 
passage over the bar which makes between Amherst and Entry islands. 
We kept the lead going constantly, and, as Captain Welsh was not familiar 
with the channel, we did not feel at all easy when we saw the rollers taking 
a pale green tint, while the lead announced only two fathoms under our 
keel. It was a narrow squeak we had ; the schooner was lifted over the 
shoalest part on the top of a sea, or she would have struck heavily and 
bilged ! The truth was that we were a little out of our course. But 
once past that point, the water deepened rapidly, although it is never 
more than a few fathoms in the neighborhood of the Magdalen Islands. 
We would advise no ship, unaccompanied by a pilot, to try this passage 
without a leading wind and clear weather. It is better to go around Entry 
Island, even although that would involve two or three hours more of sail- 
ing. This advice is the more pertinent, because the sand from the dunes 
of Sandv Hook, the extreme end of Amherst Island, is gradually filling up 
the channel. 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



51 



III. 

HxWING arrived at the Magdalen Islands, we anchored at Havre 
Aubert, the chief town. There is a small, snug port here, but 
difficult to enter, and the channel is narrow and only good for 
small vessels. The roads are formed by the bight inside of the group, 
which are so situated as to resemble a boot. This anchorage is reasonably 
secure in good weather, but is open to northerly and easterly winds. 
Vessels caught there in a gale of wind dodge around the islands, unless 
the wind shifts too rapidly for this manoeuvre to be accomplished. 

In the memorable cyclone of 1873 a large fleet of American mackerel 
schooners were making a lee at Amherst, when the storm suddenly shifted 
from southwest to northeast. Thirty-one schooners were driven on shore 
at their anchors in an hour, and proved a total loss. 

There is nothing very inspiring about the insular metropolis called 
Havre Aubert. It receives character from the lofty eminence called 
Demoiselle Hill, which springs vertically from the sea. But there is an 
extraordinary air of solitude and woe-begoneness over the place, which 
grows on one, because there are no trees or shrubs, and the wrecks bleach- 
ing in the slime or on the beach seem to suggest that this is the grand 
central spot to which decayed vessels come, a sort of hospital for disabled 
and superannuated ships. And indeed, no place in the world is responsi- 
ble for more shipwrecks than this savage, solitary cluster of sand dunes in 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

The Magdalen Islands extend about sixty miles north and south. The 
main group is practically one island ; that is, it consists of several islands 
composed of real soil or rocks more or less covered with trees, connected 
by long stretches of sand which are broken at intervals by inlets. 
Between are shallow lagoons, generally not deep enough for a boat. Thus 
Amherst is connected with Grindstone Island, and Grindstone and Alright 
are connected with Coffin Island. Were it not for the inlets, one might 
go continuously dry-shod from Amherst to Coffin Island. But the water 
in the inlets is so shoal that in places thev can be forded — not, however, 
without some danger, as quicksands abound. Several detached islands lie 
outside of the main group. These are Deadman Island, Entry, Bird Rock, 



52 THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

and Bryon islands. The last is a great resort of sea-birds, and offers mani- 
fold attractions to naturalists and sportsmen. 

These islands were a royal grant to Admiral Coffin in the last century. 
They are peopled, with the exception of Entry Island, by Acadian French, 
who retain all the characteristics of their race. The present population is 
4,316. It is curious that, although the French were but a short time in 
Acadie, yet the nnpression of the life there and their subsequent expulsion 
is yet so vivid that the good people of these islands visit Canada as an 
American returns to England, as though it were the old home. They are 
a quiet, well-behaved folk, somewhat inchned to indolence. But they can 
hardly be blamed for lack of enterprise and spirit when the circumstances 
in which their lives have been cast are so forbidding. For six months in 
the year they are shut out from the rest of the world by the ice which 
incloses the islands. They might as well be at the south pole. Two years 
ago a cable was laid to Prince Edward Island, but it does not extend to 
the detached islands, and does not appear to be of much use to any of 
them. When we were there, the operator at Havre Aubert was absent ; 
he had actually left for the main-land, to be gone several weeks. During 
the summer a steamer runs from Pictou to Amherst. She is old as the 
" remainder biscuit after a voyage," and plies twice monthly on this course 
when really unfit for service, probably because the good people of these 
islands are charitably supposed to be more ready to go to heaven by sea 
than most travelers. Almost the sole means of livelihood is found in the 
fisheries, and when these fail, which is not rarely, life becomes a burden. 
Last year a famine occurred which came within an ace of decimating the 
population. The fisheries had been a failure ; then the ship which was 
expected to bring the winter's supply of flour before the ice formed 
foundered in a storm. By the time spring came, starvation stared the 
people in the face. Many would have died if it had not been that a large 
ship with produce was wrecked on the ice off Coffin Island. The news 
spread like wild-fire. The whole population turned out, and from the 
cargo of a shipwrecked vessel drew a new lease of life. But these repeated 
calamities are at last having their effect. The people are attached to these 
naked isles, for here is their home. But fate is against them, and, scraping 
together a few dollars, they are gradually emigrating to Labrador or 
Canada. During the long winters they sometimes catch seals on the ice, 
occasionally upwards of 30,000 in one season. The hunt after seals is one 
of the most exciting incidents of winter-life at these desolate isles. The ice 
forms for several miles entirely around the group, besides welding them 
fast together with its iron-like grip. The seals have no regular haunt, but 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



53 



are liable to appear at any spot. A keen lookout is kept for them, and 
from the hills their dark forms can be discerned for a long distance away 
on the ice. When they are discovered the news spreads rapidly. From 
every quarter the people hasten toward the prey in feverish excitement, 
armed with knives, clubs, and spears. In their eagerness these sportsmen 
often forget all caution, and venture out a long distance from the shore. 
But this is attended with great hazard, as a sudden wind is liable to break 
up the ice, which is, in any case, brittle along its outside barrier. Every 
winter one or two men are lost in the seal hunt. A year or two ago three 
poor fellows were carried off on a cake of floating ice before the eyes of 
their neighbors, who were helpless to aid. 

Another winter occupation here is to go to the forests of dwarf spruce 
at Amherst and Grindstone islands and build fishing boats and small 
schooners. When the vessel is 
completed, the owner invites his 
neighbors to help him haul her 
to the beach ; she is drawn 
thither on rollers and launched 
on the ice. After that follows 
a dance, for which he provides 
simple refreshments. Liquors, 
it may be added, are little 
drunk here, chiefly because of 
a prohibitory law. Seven lob- 
ster canneries have been estab- 
lished quite recently which give 
employment to a number ; 434,- 
758 lobsters were exported in 
1 88 1. But the continuance of 
even this business is precarious, 

as it depends upon the lobsters, which are liable to take a sudden whim, 
like the mackerel, and leave for other parts. The cannery of our cour- 
teous consular agent, Mr. Ogilby, at Amherst, is a very well regulated 
establishment, and due regard seems to be given to the condition and 
cleanliness of the lobster before it is canned, which is a matter very little 
considered at some lobster factories which we might name. Capitalists 
have repeatedly offered to purchase the ■Magdalen Islands of Colonel 
Coffin, their present owner. There is considerable coloring matter in the 
soil, which it is thought might be turned to account for pigments. But 
the proprietor justly reasons that, if any one is willing to give $30,000, 




Map of the Cruise from the Magdalen Islands to 
Cape St. George. 



54 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



the sum offered, the islands must undoubtedly be worth more. The reve- 
nue from the islands is trifling ; but to a man of large fortune like him, it 
is interesting to be called Lord of the Magdalen Islands, and to hold 
them, as it were, in fief to the Crown. He charges a mere nominal 
annual rent of one shilling the acre, and does not press his tenants for 
immediate payment. It would, therefore, be difficult to foment I'ebellion 
here. 

The Magdalen Islands were a few years ago one of the most frequented 
resorts of the Gloucester fishermen. Sometimes one hundred and fifty 
sail might be seen fishing there at one time. At night or in foul weather 
they would run in and make a lee in the bight of the islands. At such 
times there have been upward of ten hundred fishermen on shore. Often 
they were noisy and "flown" with liquor, and great merriment and riot- 
ing, as one might easily imagine, was the result, frequently to the annoy- 
ance of the inhabitants, among whom there were not all told that number 
of male adults. But these fishermen were, on the other hand, an apprecia- 
ble source of revenue, the loss of which is greatly felt since our schooners 
ceased to frequent the Gulf. The great storm previously alluded to 
appears to have had a depressing influence on the mackerel. 

Havre aux Maisons, or House Harbor, is next in size to Havre Aubert, 
and the only other inclosed port in the group. But the entrance is tortu- 
ous and difficult; and in order to avoid getting the Alice May again 
aground, we decided to leave her at Amherst, with directions to run her 
into the inner harbor in case it came on to blow from the northeast, while 
we proceeded to Grindstone Island in one of the large schooner-rigged 
fishing-boats of Amherst. It was thirty feet long and shaped somewhat 
like a whale-boat. She was manned by a highly respectable old French 
fisherman, whose hair was grizzled, and whose features were seamed and 
bronzed by a life of hardship and danger. His son accompanied us. We 
were privately informed that they belonged to upper society at Amherst? 
for the sister of the old man lived in one of the best houses there, and kept 
a boarding-house, although boarders must be rather scarce. There was 
much quiet dignity in the bearing of this venerable habitant, albeit he 
wore a sou'wester and smoked a spliced cla}^ pipe. The crow's feet in the 
corners of his dimmed eyes, the hard look as he gazed over the sea, and 
the pursed-up mouth indicated the struggles of a long life of sea toil and 
suffering. We started with a strong breeze at early morning. It was 
blowing half a gale, and our sails were reefed down. But the wind 
moderated as the sun rose higher, and the distance of nine miles across 
the bay was made in good season. 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



55 



Things were apparently more quiet at Havre aux Maisons than at Am- 
herst. The liveHest object there was the sail-boat which ferried across 
the inlet from Grindstone to Alright. But in realit}^ there is more com- 
mercial activity here than at any other port in the Magdalens. This is 
due, in part, to the energy of M. Nelson Arseneaux, who owns several 
schooners and a trading establishment, besides vats for trying out seal oil. 
He is a man of frank and hearty disposition and of hospitable bent. He 




The Dash to Amherst. 



IS ever ready to extend a welcome to travelers ; and those who have ex- 
perienced his courtesy will always remember him and his amiable family 
with lively interest. 

We found a comfortable lodging and capital board at the house of 
Madame Baudreau, a native of Nova Scotia, whose Highland origin is 
unmistakably evident in her matronly features, her galliard manner, ready 
wit, and keen intelligence. If a beneficent Providence had placed her in 



56 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



a more active society, she would have been a woman of affairs. Her hus- 
band superintended a lobster cannery at Grand Entry Island, while she re- 
mained at home and gave a lodging to such stray wanderers as might 
come there during the summer. She had the history of the island and its 
every inhabitant at her fingers' ends. Excellent, also, were the meals she 
served. It is a fact worth remembering that women of masculine strength 
of character are generally good cooks. The islands are so poor that any 
attempt at an elaborate incnii must prove a failure there. There is much, 




The Old Skipper. 



however, in cooking well what is at hand, and in this quality our hostess 
excelled. The chops were admirable ; the wild strawberries and cream 
were delicious ; the tea was steeped just enough, and the potatoes were 
mealy and toothsome. 

To cap the climax, Madame gave us at breakfast trout that LucuUus 
might have envied. Noble three- and four-pound trout they were, and 
cooked as if Izaak Walton himself had been there to give directions. 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



57 



There was no difficulty in swallowing these beautiful fish ; but when it 
came to swallowing the account of the manner in which they were caught, 
there was some demur. I tell the story, but do not vouch for it ; although, 
as I heard it elsewhere also, without any collusion between the narrators, 
it would seem to have some basis in fact. These fish were caught by 
hand ; not with a net or a gaff, but actually by grasping them with the 
bare hand, and taking them out of the water ! No fly-makers or rod-fash- 
ioners need expect custom for their wares in places where trout are caught 
by hand. The explanation given is that the streams are very small, which 
is perfectly true ; and that, when the fish get up near the head of the 
brook, it becomes so narrow and shallow that a three-pound trout finds it 
hard work to turn around. While the fish are in this predicament, an 
active lad can get a fast hold of them and land them on the grass. 

After returning from mass, Madame Baudreau placed her carriage at 
our disposal. It was after the latest style of phaeton in use at the islands ; 
to be sure, it looked like a very primitive sort of a cart, but it was the 
only sort of vehicle to be had ; and although its jolting made our teeth 
chatter, we had a very jolly ride to the fishing village of Etang du Nord. 
The distance was five miles over a very broken country. This village 
is by far the most bustling of any settlement in the group. It appears 
even more populous than it is, because the shore of the semicircular har- 
bor is lined with fish-houses built on piles, which look very much like the 
huts of the lake-dwellers of Switzerland. A large fleet of fishing-boats be- 
long to this place, and when they are at anchor on a holiday, or during a 
westerly gale, the little port has a most animated appearance. 

At a cost which it would seem must be altogether beyond the means of 
the poverty-stricken people, a breakwater is in course of construction 
across the mouth of the harbor, which lies exposed to north and west winds. 
The great drawback to Etang du Nord is the unspeakable filth around the 
fish-houses. The stench of decaying fish exceeds belief. A board of health 
would seem a prime requisite at this place. 

It was pleasant to turn from these fish-houses to a characteristic scene, 
to which we were attracted by the sweet strains of a violin floating on the 
calm summer air. On proceeding in the direction from which it came, we 
discovered the village musician seated bare-headed on the door-step of a 
small house, absorbed in the harmonies of the fiddle-bow. He was a char- 
acter whose fine cranial development and sapient eye might have enabled 
him easily to pass himself off for a philosopher. We set him down as the 
village pedagogue, if there be one — a question we did not ask. Around 
him a group of eager listeners had collected. Some were seated on chairs 



58 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



or stools ; others had planted themselves on the ground ; while the younger 
members of this rustic audience lay on their stomachs, supporting their 
faces on their elbows and flourishing their feet in the air. It was a delicious 
bit of nature, unaffected by the restraints of city life. A far greater musi- 
cian might envy the uncritical delight with which the audience testified 
their appreciation of the pleasure afforded them. 

The following day opened with a gale of wind, which sang wildly 
over the lonely wolds of Grindstone Island. As it was blowing too hard 
for the boat, and we had no time to lose, we decided to return to Havre 




Etanz dtt Nord. 



Aubert by land along the sand dunes. The fords had been shifted by 
recent storms, and we were told that the passage was more hazardous 
than it had been for years. But a man had been over the road the 
previous week without accident, and we decided to take the risk. 
After scouring the neighborhood, we succeeded in obtaining two carts 
and a guide, who would also bring back the vehicles. Passing again 
through Etang du Nord, we entered on the dunes, and for some ten 
miles the course lay along a beach of sand, through which the wheels 
were dragged with difficulty. The strong northwest wind drove the 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



59 



great breakers shoreward on our right with deafening thunder. At 
times the surf encroached on our path and splashed over the wheels. 
Wrecks, or the skeletons of ill-fated vessels, were seen frequently, either 
entirely exposed or deeply embedded in the sand. Man}- a poor ship 
has been picked up by these dunes at night, or driven on them by the 
fury of irresistible tempests. Water was on either hand — the open sea 
on the right and a great lagoon on the left. The gusts swept furiously 
over that scene of solitude and desolation. The air was misty with 




spray, and the screaming fish-hawks and cormorants wheeled past us 
like lightning borne down on the wind. Like a gray cloud, Deadman 
Island loomed faintly in the southern horizon. Not a soul was in sight 
on that desolate shore. Alone, we labored slowly over the sand to- 
ward Amherst, which looked far enough away directl}- ahead. At last 
we arrived at a place where a long break occurred in the beach on 
which we were traveling:. Before us rolled the sea. We could reach 



6o THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

the opposite shore only by venturing to try a shoal which lay across 
the inlet, curving inward, and somewhat removed from direct exposure 
to the surf, or it would have been impassable. The ford was marked 
by twigs fixed in the bottom at rare intervals, and also by land bear- 
ings known to the guide. But it was narrow, and great care was neces- 
sary to avoid getting into deep water. The water came up repeat- 
edly over the hubs into the bottom of the carts. The poor horses panted 
with the exertion. The passage was successfully accomplished after 
we had proceeded a distance of a mile throvigh the water. From that 
point there were no further difficulties to encounter, and we stopped 
to rest the horses and partake of the lunch we had brought. What 
we had most apprehended was the quicksands, exceedingly subtle foes, 
which take one unawares, and out of which there is no escape. Hav- 
ing passed this danger, we were able to enjoy our sandwiches and 
pipes with unusual zest, as we sat under the lee of a great white sand- 
hill, over which the wind whistled with a shrill wail. 

The shores of Amherst Island, to which we had crossed, were quite 
different from those of Grindstone Island. There we traversed a bare 
beach of fine^ sand ; but here we found a line of high and very pictur- 
esque sand-hills, covered with long salt grass, running along the coast 
like a breastwork erected to protect the land from the ravages of the 
sea. Many highly pictorial effects, replete with sentiment, presented 
themselves as we slowly rode toward the hills of Amherst. When we 
reached there we found a soil sufficiently rich to support forests of 
dwarf spruce and pine, and farther on, to yield potatoes and cabbages. 
From these spruce trees the islanders brew spruce beer, which is the 
chief beverage in the Magdalen Islands. 

At Anse aux Cabanes the cliffs became abrupt, and we found a small 
cove where a group of fishing-boats were drawn up on the beach. A 
little beyond this we came to a lake, forming the foreground of a very 
agreeable landscape, whose features were so combined as to suggest 
some fair prospect in southern seas instead of an actual scene in the 
bleak Magdalen Isles. In the extreme distance the noble outline of En- 
try Island loomed up beyond the blue sea, suffused with a deep, warm 
lilac hue ; the water was of a superb azure, like amethyst and tur- 
quoise. Demoiselle Hill gave emphasis to the middle distance, and 
a lawn-like slope, clothed in verdure, encircled the small lake which 
formed the foreground of an exquisite natural composition. 

We reached Havre Aubert without further incident, and went on 
board our schooner hungry as wolves. We found calkers in possession 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



61 



of the deck. The heat at Gaspe had melted the tar out of the seams, 
and our cabin had for several days leaked badly. Captain Welsh had 
succeeded in engaging calkers when at mass on the previous Sabbath. 
It was difficult to get them at this season, as it was the time for making 
hay at the Magdalen Islands — that is, for catching fish, which is the 
chief harvest of the people. 

On the following day the sky was reasonably clear, but looked 
smoky in the southwest, and the glass was falling ; but we concluded 
to run over to Entry Island at least, where we could make a lee if it 




■ Crossing the Ford to Amherst. 

should blow hard. Before starting v/e laid in a supply of eggs and 
salt herrings, and were lucky enough to meet a woman with a bucket 
full of wild strawberries. They were so ridiculously cheap, that for 
two days all on board luxuriated on the berry of which Walton said, 
"Doubtless God might have made a better berry, but doubtless He 
never did." 

A boat having come over from Entry Island to trade, we secured 
one of her crew to pilot us to a good anchorage there, and made sail. 



62 THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

A very fresh breeze of wind drove us rapidly across the bay. We 
came to anchor under the lee of a sandy point and bar. The appear- 
ance of Entry Island is very impressive, differing altogether from that 
of the islands already described. It stands entirely isolated, ten miles 
from Havre Aubert. It is about three miles long, and in proportion 
to its size as mountainous as Madeira. Abrupt and magnificently shaped 
cliffs, beautifully tinted red and brown, are to be seen in its entire circuit, 
which at the eastern end are over four hundred feet high. A most 
beautiful undulating plateau, covered with long waving grass, breast 
high, on the western half of the island, rises, first gradually, then rapidly, 
into a central range, terminating in twin peaks, the loftiest of which is 
called St. Lawrence Hill, and is about six hundred feet high. The ad- 
joining height is absurdly called Pig Hill. The slopes are partly cov- 
ered by a miniature forest of dwarf cedars and spruces, which look like 
forest trees of larger growth. The soil is arable, and affords fine grazing. 
The summit of St. Lawrence Hill was whitened by a flock of nibbling 
sheep. 

We landed on a sand beach near two lofty columnar red rocks, gro- 
tesquely shaped and called the Old Man and Old Woman. These names 
frequently occur in the nomenclature of those waters. From the fre- 
quent repetition of geographical epithets in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
one has a right to infer paucity of invention or verbal weakness among 
the early navigators who opened those regions. It was a good two 
miles' walk to the settlement, which is near the center of the island. The 
general aspect of things at Entry seemed like Pitcairn's Island, and I 
was constantly haunted by the idea that I was there. Entry Island is 
shaped something like a tadpole, a long point running out toward the 
west. We first went to the light-house. It is kept by Mr. James Cas- 
sidy, a very civil and intelligent man, who has been there since the 
light was first erected. He invited us into his house, which adjoins the 
tower. Mrs. Cassidy also received us with refined affability. Books 
and magazines were abundant on the tables, and there was a true home- 
like aspect to everything about the house which seemed very attractive, 
and was almost unexpected in that solitary spot. Mrs. Cassidy lament- 
ed the lack of educational advantages at Entry Island, and said she had 
been obliged to send her children to Nova Scotia for a schooling. She 
seemed to occupy an unusually lonely position, because the house is a 
mile from any other, and the Cassidys are entirely unrelated to the other 
residents at Entry. 

After buying a sheep from Mr. Cassidy, we rambled over to Mrs. 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 63 

Dixon's house. This is the oldest of the ten dwellings on the islet, and 
she is both the oldest inhabitant and the first settler. Mrs. Dixon is now 
eighty-eight years of age, and came to Entry Island with her husband in 
1822, sixty years ago. Still hale and heart}-, she is full of animation and 
keen observation, and is virtually the queen of Entry Island, for she has 
twelve children and forty-seven grandchildren, besides a number of great- 
grandchildren, all of whom, with one or two exceptions, live there. 
There are ten families at Entry, all but one of whom are related to her ; 
she is looked up to by all with reverence, her advice is asked and her 
counsels are followed, and she rules by a sort of mild patriarchal sway. 

On reaching Mrs. Dixon's, we were cordially invited to enter, and 
bowls of fresh milk were brought to us. A flock of rosy, barefooted 
grandchildren clustered by the door and gazed at the strangers, until 
gradually they gathered courage to come in and talk with us. Mrs. Dixon 
welcomed us to her old home with a hearty cordiality, in which one 
could discern a certain air of authority natural to one who was at once 
an uncrowned sovereign and the progenitor of the subjects who peo- 
pled her insular realm. Had she ever wearied of such a lonely existence? 
we asked. Oh, no, she replied. She had been once off the island in 
sixty years ; but there was always plenty to do, and with her children 
about her she was content. During the long winters they threshed grain, 
or made butter, or spun yarn, and wove the cloth they wore. Sometimes 
they had a fiddle and a dance, and at any rate there was always some- 
thing to be done. She regretted that only during the summer could 
they have religious services, when a clergyman would come over two 
or three times and baptize the babies or confirm the young. From De- 
cember to February Entry Island is cut off from all communication with 
the other isles of the group. In February or March the broken ice 
generally becomes solid, and people can then cross over to Grindstone 
Island until May, when the ice disappears. 

The old lady sat in the ample smoke-blackened chimney corner of her 
kitchen, while entertaining us, knitting a stocking. There was no dim- 
ness in her eyes, no quavering in her utterance. Her voice was clear 
and strong, and her speech was spiced with shrewd and witty remarks. 
She was evidently a woman of remarkable strength of character. It was 
with great interest that I heard her talk, for it is not often in this age 
that a woman is found occupying such a position, the virtual sovereign 
of an island which for six months in the year is shut out from the world. 
It was interesting to see the deference shown to the old lady by her sons 
when they entered the room where she was seated. A large family Bible 



64 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



was a prominent object in the best room ; and from all we could gather, 
these people are honest and piously inclined. 

From Mrs. Dixon's Ave made our way through the long grass to the 
grand precipices at the eastern end of the island. These cliffs are up- 
ward of four hundred feet above the sea, and are remarkable for their 

color and form. At the ex- 
treme easterly point there is 
a small inaccessible penin- 
sula connected with the 
main island by a narrow cur- 
tain of rock, which comes up 
into a very sharp edge, four 
hundred feet high. A few 
foxes hide on this point, and 
at night creep over on this 
sharp edge, and make a raid 
on the hen-roosts. There 
seems to be no way of reach- 
ing these stealthy rogues, 
without great risk of de- 
struction to the hunter. 

The highest of the Entry 
Island cliffs is four hundred 
and forty feet high, and 
comes to a point like a tur- 
ret erected to watch the 
coast. It is, in fact, called 
the Watch Tower. As 
we gazed over the edge 
of the precipices on the 
sea side of these cliffs, 
I was vividly remind- 
ed of the celebrated 
rocks of the Channel 
Islands. 

There is great beauty and variety in the formation of Entry Island. 
Its surface is so broken into miniature valleys, gorges, and plateaus, that 
it seems very much larger than it is. There are several deep pits near 
the east end, to which one must give a wide berth, for they contain water 
to an unknown depth, while the mouths are almost concealed by a growth 




A feio of the Natives. 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



65 



of rank grass. Everything about the interior of Entry Island suggested 
pastoral ease and happiness. The flocks and herds grazed on the hills. 
Healthy children, fowls, calves, geese, and pigs jostled together before 
the farm-houses in good-natured rivalry of friendship. If there were no 
evidences of wealth among the good people, there were also no signs of 
squalor or discontent. As the day declined, and the shadows grew long, 
the cattle from all parts of the island gathered to a common stock-yard 
or byre. It was pleasing to hear the bells tinkling as the cattle wended 
home. When they had all come, the milkmaids entered the inclosure 
with their pails. 

After purchasing a supply of eggs, we turned our faces toward our 
floating home riding in the bay. The ramble of the afternoon and the 
keen sea-wind had whetted our appetites. But the state of the weather 
also warned us to hasten on board without further delay. All the after- 
noon the wind had been rising, until now it blew a gale from the south- 
west, with every prospect of increasing in violence. It swept over the 
hills in shrill blasts, and the reefs were white with the foam of the beatinsf 
surges. Vessels could also be discerned putting back to make a lee behind 
the island. A great bank of cloud had gathered in the west like a smoke, 
and fully an hour before sundown the sun had buried itself in this cloud, 
and an early and ominous twilight came on apace. Hastening our steps, 
we at last reached the boat. Mr. Cassidy was waiting there with the 
sheep. He advised us to remain on shore, and offered us a lodging at his 
house. Although protected from the direct force of the waves, the cove 
where the Alice May was anchored showed the influence of the under-tow 
escaping around the bar. She was rolling heavily, surrounded bv a fleet 
of schooners which had collected there during: our absence, seekingf a shel- 
ter. 

We found our boat's crew in bad humor, because they had been 
detained so long after eight bells, or supper-time. Punctuality at meals is 
one of the important points in a sailor's life ; his fare ma}' be poor, 
but it is the best he has, and he looks forward to it. Nothing irritates 
Jack more than to be late to meals. We desired to go aboard without 
delay. The fury of the wind soon drove the boat out to the vessel, but it 
required great caution to round to and get aboard without swamping the 
boat. As we had but one boat, and it was now dark, it would be all up 
with us if the yawl capsized. To make matters worse, the men were 
scared as well as cross, and I found it no small matter to bring her to with 
the steering oar. 

" Keep cool ; one at a time, boys," was the word as we la}^ alongside 
5 



66 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



and grasped the line which was thrown to us. As the schooner rolled her 
side down toward us, there was a general scramble, and we all grasped the 
rail at once and leaped safely on board. 

" Well, Henry, is supper ready yet? " 

" Yes, sir, all ready ; it's waiting for you below, sir." 

The faithful fellow had kept thq supper warm, and, as soon as he saw 
us coming off, knowing our eagerness for something warm, he lighted the 
lamp and laid the dishes on the table. Out from the wind, we stepped 
below into our homely but CQzy cabin, and were greeted with the grateful 
fragrance of a savory meal. Among other dishes was a mess that was new 




Old Fire-Place at Entry Island. 

to US. A ragout of lamb, highly seasoned, was surrounded by a wall of 
potatoes, mashed and richly browned. 

Many were the expressions of ecstasy and impatience with which we 
hailed the supper, and especially this dish. It was frequently encored 
until it was exhausted. Whenever a new dish appeared, we gave it an 
appropriate name. Bean soup we called " Potage a la Pompadour" ; then, 
too, we had 2i fricassee au chcval de viaitrc d hotel, which was composed of 
salt beef. Our favorite dish was criifs an dindon du Cap Cod, which, freely 
translated, means fishballs garnished with poached eggs. This dish was, 
perhaps, Henry's chef d'oeuvrc. 



THE CRUISE OE THE ALICE MAY. 



67 



But while we were enjoying- our supper with such zest, the Httle 
schooner was roUing more heavily, and the hum of the wind in the rigging 
showed that the force of the gale was increasing. 

When the moon rose, it added to the wildness and splendor of the night. 
The sky was clear from clouds, but a thin haze slightly obscured the stars. 
A tremendous surf was breaking on the low spit which protected us from 
the brunt of the gale. As the spray shot high up in vast sheets of foam, it 
caught the light of the moon, and was turned into molten silver. Before 
us loomed the dark mass of Entry Island, vague and mysterious. From 
time to time the dark outline of a schooner could be seen coming around 




riie Gale at E)itry Island. 



the island under short sail to make a lee. Then would be heard the rattle 
of the cable, and soon the schooner would add the gleam of her anchor 
hght to those already twinkhng and bobbing in the roads. 

The glass was still faUing, and if the wind should shift to the northeast 
or northwest we were in a nice box. But we preferred to regard this as a 
summer blow that would die out before morning, and accordmgly enjoyed 
the grandeur of the night without apprehension. About midnight the 
wind began to cant, with that whiffling uneasiness of direction which 
always demands a sharp lookout. It was preparing to shift. All hands 
were called, close reefs were put in the fore and main sails, and the crew 



68 THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

manned the windlass. This preparation had come none too quickly, for, 
with a flurry of rain and several vivid flashes of lightning, the wind 
suddenly came out of the west-northwest. Quickly hoisting the reefed 
mainsail and jib, we hastened away from an anchorage which, from being 
a safe lee, had become a lee shore. As we passed from the shelter of the 
island, we encountered a wild, tumultuous sea, which decided us to head 
on our original course, instead of running to the leeward of Entry Island. 
If it should come on to blow hard, we considered that it would beat down 
the old sea, and we could then run for the southern side of Entry ; while, 
if the wind moderated, we were gaining in every mile we sailed. Cruising 
among the Magdalen Islands is not a trifling sport ; it requires judgment 
and caution, for there are no harbors accessible in bad weather, and the lee 
under the land made with one wind may become a deadly foe the next 
hour, while the seas which the winds raise in the Gulf are exceedingly 
dangerous, not because they are unusually high, but because they are short 
and steep — just the sort of waves which trip vessels rolling in a calm, or 
cause them to founder when hove to. 

But the wind soon began to moderate, and we headed northeast for 
the Bay of Islands, two hundred and fifty miles away. It was with enthu- 
siasm that we saw \\i& Alice May at last shaping a course for what promised 
to be one of the most interesting points in our cruise. The reports we 
had heard regarding the grandeur of the scenery on the west coast of 
Newfoundland, together with the savage reputation of the cliffs and people, 
had fired our imagination. Bryon Island and Bird Rock bore about west 
at noon ; the latter was only two miles distant. It is indeed a lonely spot, 
entirely bare, and occupied only by the three light-keepers. Access can 
be had to it only by a crane overhanging the water from the precipice. 
A chair is lowered, and visitors are hoisted from the boat. The Rock 
has been the scene of two disasters within the last fifteen months. When 
the keepers were firing the fog-gun it exploded and killed two of them on 
the spot. It was several days before the poor survivor could contrive to 
induce a passing sail to touch there and carry the news to the main-land. 
Previous to this sad event, Bird Rock was at one time destitute of provis- 
ions after a prevalence of long bad weather, and the light-keepers were 
forced to consider seriously the possibility that one of the Magdalen Islands 
might become a cannibal island. But their signals were finally seen when 
the weather moderated, and a passing ship came to their aid at the last 
moment. It is dreadful that such a condition of things should be possible 
so near to civihzed life. There is not the slightest excuse for a light-house 
to be allowed to run out of provisions. In this day of canned and pre- 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 69 

served meats and hard bread, a supply sufficient for a year would not spoil, 
and would prevent peril from starvation. No light-house, difficult of ac- 
cess in bad weather, should be at any time left with less than a double 
supply of hght-keepers, and stores for fully six months. The smaller Bird 
Rock lies about half a mile distant from the one on which the light-house 
stands. It is a low, jagged, dangerous ledge. There is a passage between 
the two islands, or rocks, but no vessel should try it, unless pressed by the 
wind too near the rocks without the ability to tack or claw off from such 
perilous proximity. Although the wind was light, there was still such a 
high swell that we did not think it expedient to attempt to try landing on 
Bird Rock. Bryon Island resembles Entr}^ Island, being well fitted for 
pasturage ; it is occupied by several English farmers. But it is more flat 
than Entry Island, and every way less interesting, except for its large va- 
riety of sea-fowl. Owing to its distance from the other islands of the group, 
and the entire absence of harbors, Bryon Island is rarely visited by boats 
or ships. A party of naturalists and sportsmen from Boston were there 
during our visit to the Magdalen Islands. 

The sunset was superb, the colors being brilliant, but tender, and hnally 
merging m a deep orange hue, lasting for hours, until imperceptibly ab- 
sorbed in the purple veil of night. It was emphatically a fair-weather sk}^ 
which was exactly what we hoped for when cruising along the tremen- 
dous coast of the west of Newfoundland. A light wind fanned the schooner 
on her course all night, and at sunrise land was made out on the lee bow. 
Never does the first sight of a new coast, or in fact of any coast, become 
a commonplace event, even to the most experienced old salt. All the 
senses seem at once on the alert to ascertain what point it can be. The 
various bearings are considered, the chart is studied afresh, and each one 
has his own opinion to express. Of course there are times when the char- 
acteristics of the land are so salient, or so well known, that there can be 
no question as to its identity. But, as a rule, when land is first descried 
at sea, its whereabouts continues for a while a matter of speculation. Then, 
too, the imagination is stimulated, and actively surmises the nature of the 
country, its people, and special peculiarities. Particularly is this the case 
when one approaches an island he has not seen before. When one travels 
by rail, the social or topographical changes come by gradation, and there 
is rarely a striking contrast apparent at any one point. But when one 
arrives in sight of a new country by sea, the transition from the one to 
the other is rapid, and often violent. When he lands on the new shore, it 
seems to be like coming to another planet, and he is constantly saying to 
himself, " How strange it appears to see these people. Here they have 



JO THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

been existing for ages ; they are real human beings, marrying and giving 
in marriage, and engaged in human pursuits, and going through the end- 
less round of destiny like my own people, and yet I never saw them or 
heard of them before. They seem quite able to do without the rest of the 
world ! " 

We made out the land in sight to be Cape St. George. It was yet 
very distant, and loomed like a gray cloud in the offing. A long and lofty 
and forbidding coast-line gradually came into view, trending north and 
south for a great distance. The larger part of the day a calm prevailed. 
Numerous whales were to be seen sporting in schools, their smoke-like 
spouting suggesting the firing of muskets. One of these unwieldy levia- 
thans passed under our stern near enough to strike the schooner with a 
stroke of the tail, if he had so chosen. The high westerly swell drifted 
the vessel shoreward quite near to the inaccessible precipices of Cape St. 
George. This is a terrible coast in stormy weather. For sixty miles there 
is not a place where a ship attacked by westerly gales could make a lee or 
get an anchorage. The coast is many hundreds of feet high, without any 
beach at the foot except at rare intervals. When south of Cape St. George, 
a ship can make a lee of it in a nor'wester or run into Georgetown. A 
lee can also be made in the bight of the cape, which is shaped not unlike 
a fish-hook. But this bight, or bay, is dangerous in a northeast wind, and 
the entrance is at best hazardous, as it is beset with reefs which are not 
buoyed. A very precarious lee resembling a forlorn hope may be made 
behind Red Island, a rock near the outer angle of Cape St. George. Red 
Island, by the way, is a summer station of the large French cod-fishing 
firm of Camolet Freres et les Fils de I'aine, whose headquarters are at St. 
Pierre. 

What adds to the perils of this coast is the scarcity of the population 
and the desperate character of those who live there, occupying rough 
shanties among the rocks. It is a matter of fact and not of rumor that, 
when a shipwrecked vessel happens to be so situated that the crew can not 
escape, they are in great danger from these ruffians of the sea, whose ob- 
ject is to plunder the ship. It is most disgraceful that such miscreants 
should be permitted to live on any part of the British or French dominions. 
The perils of the sea are already sufficient without adding to them, by al- 
lowing the coast to be infested with sea-pirates. Probably each govern- 
ment would shirk the responsibility on the other, because the western and 
southern shores of Newfoundland are debatable ground, where each claims, 
but fails to obtain, unrestricted jurisdiction. 

It is also very discreditable to somebody that there is no light-house 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 71 

between Cape Ray and the straits of Belle Isle, a distance of four hundred 
miles, on a coast passed by many vessels during six months of the year. 
Some would reply to this that the coast is high, and is easily discernible 
in all weathers, and that the entrances to the bays are free from shoals. 
This is true enough ; but this very boldness of the coast makes it difficult 
to distinguish the ports until a ship is very close in, while it is quite impos- 
sible at night. The few ports are likewise so very far apart that it is highly 
dangerous for a ship to make a mistake in a gale of wind, for she is sure 
to be driven on shore before she can make the next port ; whereas, with 
four or five prominent light-houses, this danger might be mitigated to a 
considerable degree. Two years ago a fleet of six schooners came out of 
the Bay of Islands in the afternoon. As it was late in the season, there 
were many passengers on board who were leaving the bay before the in- 




OiJ Dcadman Island. 



clemency of the season should close navigation. It came on to blow hard 
from the westward during the night. The schooners could not carry sail 
against the savage wind and sea ; under their lee was a pitiless coast with- 
out anchorage or harbor, and haunted by demons in human shape. Before 
morning every one of this fleet had struck on the rocks and all hands per- 
ished ; whether any of them came to land and were murdered remains a 
matter of conjecture. 

Three winters ago a square-rigged vessel struck on the coast north of 
the Bay of Islands and lodged high up in a hollow of the cliff. All the 
crew but two were lost in trying to get to land. The survivors lingered 
on board, looking for a chance to get off safely or to be rescued by the 
inhabitants. After some weeks the fuel gave out, or at least the means 
for kindling a fire. Then one of the men died. For two months the single 



^2 THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

survivor lived in this appalling situation, with only a frozen corpse for 
companionship and without fire, while the deafening din of the breakers 
constantly reminded hnii of his own impending doom. In the spring, 
when navigation opened, the wreck was discovered by some fishermen. 
They boarded her, and found a man ahve lying by the side of a corpse, and 
in the last stages of despair and glimmering vitality. After receiving suste- 
nance he revived, and was able to narrate the details of an experience 
never surpassed by the most harrowing tales of suffering at sea. 

It was a fact attracting attention that, although the weather was fine, 
we saw no sea-birds in this region excepting Mother Carey's chickens. 
Even the noisy and ubiquitous gull failed to put in an appearance. 



IV. 

THREE days we were becalmed off the coast of Newfoundland, mak- 
ing scarcely any progress. The weather was too fine for those 
waters, and suggested that it might prove a weather-breeder preced- 
ing a storm, while we were yet distant from port on a perilous coast. At 
this time, and in fact through the entire voyage, we found the mornings 
and evenings cool, and often needed a fire in our stove to take off the chill. 
We stood in toward Bear Cove on the third morning, and a glimpse was 
revealed to us of the ranges which give such grandeur to the west coast of 
Newfoundland. A coast-range of mountains, reaching in places a height 
of three thousand feet, trends north and south. The abruptness of the 
slopes, and the savage character of the numerous ravines which intersect 
these mountains, add greatly to the formidable aspect they present from 
the sea. At Bear Cove these heights approach the water with a regularity 
resembling stupendous fortifications, opening here and there like mighty 
embrasures. They are almost as bare as if constructed of masonry, but 
their grim and forbidding effect is slightly modified by the variety of 
colors that beautify the rocky ledges of which they are composed. 
Nowhere did we discern, far as the eye could reach, the faintest sign of 
human or animal life, but over land and sea brooded solitude. 

All day the dead calm continued. The slatting of the sails, the jerking 
of the booms, and the groaning of the timbers, the livelong hours as we 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 73 

tossed helplessly on the regular roll of the westerly swell, were most exas- 
perating, especially also because the sea was gradually setting the schooner 
close in under the cliffs. In fact, we were so far in that we lost the influ- 
ence of a light breeze from the eastward, which the highlands prevented 
from reaching our sails. We were ahiiost in blue water, having passed off 
the bank which shoals the water in the center of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

After dinner we took soundings, and finding that the vessel had drifted 
into shallower water, the cod-lines were brought out and dropped over the 
side. The results were very gratifying. Scarcely had the first line 
reached bottom before a strong bite was felt. The heavy tug on the line 
indicated large fish, and two cod of unusual size were found attached to it. 
For several hours all hands were occupied drawing in cod. The fish 
caught that afternoon averaged a size more than common, and the after- 
deck was soon heaped up with a fine supply of fresh meat. Barrels were 
brought out from the fore-peak, and the fish were cleaned, salted, and 
barreled for future use, reserving a supply for present needs. A cod-fish 
purchased in the market is not to be compared, when cooked, with one 
just out of water. 

As the day wore on, light puffs from the southward and eastward 
carried us slowly toward the entrance to the Bay of Islands, which we 
earnestly hoped to enter before another night should close in. South 
Head, part of Lark Mountain lying at the lower side of the port, now 
towered up sublimely, revealing the vast chasm which is hollowed out on 
its western or sea side. This chasm resembles a crater which has been 
depressed on one side, and gives a volcanic aspect to a coast which 
otherwise shows little trace of igneous action in its forms. A singular 
peak was also opened up in the interior, fixed in the edge of a vertical 
precipice. It was difficult not to believe it a feudal tower of the dark 
ages. 

But the aspect of the weather was not encouraging ; for the sk}- was 
becoming overcast, and a foreboding gloom accompanied by fog was 
gathering in the south. The mists dropped over the precipices like 
waterfalls, and the prospect of entering the Bay of Islands not only grew 
beautifully less, but just as we were able, as it were, to look in, there was 
every reason to apprehend that we should have to make an offing. A 
night of intense silence and gloom succeeded. Occasionally we heard 
the dull echo of the surf beating in the caves of South Head. Although 
the weather continued calm, it was a night when one prefers not to sleep 
too soundly. Lest we should drift on the rocks, we headed out to sea^ 
but toward morning a southerly breeze sprang up. 



74 



THE CRUISE OE THE ALICE MAY. 



" Head her in for the bay, Captain Welsh. We want to get in before 
the wind changes and blows us out to sea again." 

But Captain Welsh was a "blue-water" man. He liked plenty of sea- 
room, and hesitated. 

" Now's our chance, captain. It'll be daylight before we are up with 
the entrance to the bay, and then we can see our way in. At any rate, 
we've got to get there to-day ; we've fooled out here long enough. It's 
to-day or never. You better set the gaff-topsail and stay-sail, and make 
all we can before it comes on to blow." 

With visible reluctance the captain sung out: "Put your helm up! 
Here, Tom, slack out the main-sheet ! Bill, you go aloft and loose the top- 
sail!" 

But there was no spirit in the breeze ; it was capricious and ineffi- 
cient, although it took us to within five miles of the entrance before it 

died away. The gray dawn 
now showed us a grim outlook. 
The cliffs were half hidden in 
driving clouds, and the sun 
seemed to take no interest in 
lighting up what promised to 
be a very dubious day. As 
the light increased we per- 
ceived a line of angry foam 
rapidly coming toward us dead 
ahead. 

" There's where it's coming 
out," said the captain, taking 
the wheel and keeping a sharp 
lookout. As the vessel payed off to meet the wind, it struck her with 
great violence, laying her almost on her beam ends. In came one sail 
after another in rapid succession, and the schooner was soon in fighting 
trim, battling with a furious northeaster. A short, violent sea swept 
often over the deck, and every timber quivered as the little craft jumped 
from billow to billow. The wind was accompanied by heavy sheets of 
rain, which at times completely shut out the land. Our only course was 
to keep hammering away at it, and do our best to beat into the bay, at 
least so long as it did not blow too hard to carry sail. The squalls off the 
highland were frequent and violent, although, following the instructions 
of the navigation guide-book, we took good care not to get too close 
under its lee. 




The Cruise of the "Alice May" through the Bay 
of Islands. 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



75 



I never shall forget how Guernsey Island looked that morning as the 
little schooner ran under its tremendous cliffs and tacked. One thou- 
sand feet above us it towered, a vertical rock over which the mists drove 
like smoke. Although we were fully a mile from it, it fairly seemed but 
a stone's throw from the ship. This Gibraltar-like rock lies midway in 
the channel. Although it is two full miles from South Head, it was im- 
possible to believe it. The cliffs on each side were so vast, it was only by 
timing the distance as we tacked from side to side that I could credit 




Guernsey Island. 



what the chart and dividers stated. But even after I was convinced that 
it was two long miles between the headlands, I could not realize it until 
I had seen the heights at all times of the day and in all states of the atmos- 
phere. 

After struggling at her task all the morning, the Alice May finally 
reached into the Bay of Islands and came abreast of Lark Harbor. The 
wind now capriciously died away, and she was in danger of losing all 
she had gained, owing to the rapid tide and current running out of the 



76 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



bay, when a sea-wind sprung up and wafted us where we could anchor, 
if necessary. The sun also came out ; the clouds rolled away, and the 
magnificent scenery of the Bay of Islands lay around us. We felt more 
than repaid for the effort required to reach it. The coast scenery of the 
world offers few prospects more grand, more varied, more enchantingly 
beautiful than this. Certainly on the Atlantic coast of North America its 
equal is not to be found. 

The Bay of Islands is about twelve miles square. Its entrance is 
guarded by Guernsey, Pearl, and Tweed Islands, which are all exceed- 




The Bay of Islands. 



ingly loft3^ Guernsey is also called Ouibol by the French. Opposite 
Guernsey is Lark Mountain ; it is isolated and rises one thousand three 
hundred and six feet, terminating in what is called South Head. This 
was the scene of a remarkable incident some years ago. In a heated 
altercation the mate of a French ship killed the captain. A sort of drum- 
head court-martial held on deck condemned the wretch to die. But he 
was given his choice either to be swung from the yard-arm, or climb to 
the top of South Head and leap over the precipice. He chose the latter. 
With his arms pinioned he was conducted to the brow of the fearful 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



11 



precipice, and when the word was given, boldly sprang into the air. His 
body never was found, having probably lodged in a cleft in the side of 
the cliff. Such a death seems to suggest that the doomed man was con- 
scious of being not wholly in the wrong in the quarrel which thus resulted 
in the death 



of two men. 
No ordina- 
ry criminal 
could have 
deliberately 
accepted 
death in 
such a form. 
Adjoin- 
ing Lark 
Mountain is 
Lark Har- 
bor, a deep, 
narrow, and 

most romantic cove, almost inclosed 
by overhanging, densely wooded 
crags, offering safe anchorage, but lia- 
ble to furious squalls. Eastward of this 
opens a lovely bay called York Harbor, 
protected by a low, wooded isle. Her 
are two or three huts occupied by miners, 
the first dwellings we had seen since we 
left the Magdalen Islands. This delicious 
sheet of water is dominated on the east by 
the sublime grandeur of Blomidon, which 
terminates one of the coast-ranges. Blomi- 
don is two thousand and forty-three feet 
high, and is crowned with an overhanging 
rampart of rock, which abuts on a nearly 
vertical slope that plunges fifteen hundred Prospecting. 

feet. In one spot the crags take the form 

of an enormous eagle's claw, burying its talons in the side of the moun- 
tain. From the summit a waterfall slips over the edge of the cliff and 
dangles downward, like a flexible band of silver, until lost in the impene- 
trable forests which clothe the base of Blomidon. These forests form one 




78 THE CRUISE OE THE ALICE MAY. 

of the most remarkable features of the Bay of Islands. The southern 
side of the bay is a mass of tangled woods, generally spruce, birch, and 
fir, interlocking their boughs, and intertwined by an almost impenetra- 
ble thicket. There are tracts in that solitude where the axe has never 
rung since the creation. Bear, deer, beaver, partridges, and hare abound 
in these woods. The hunters of the beaver assume the right to a certain 
region, and others venturing to hunt on this claim are liable to get into 
trouble. The flanking ranges of Blomidon are wild in form, presenting 
abrupt peaks springing out of the woods, and valleys bathed in delicate 
hues. Comparisons are considered odious, but I could not help comparing 
this part of the shores of the bay to the shores of the Clyde and the adjoin- 
ing Trosachs. 

Blomidon may almost be said to be a solid mass of copper. It abounds 
in that mineral. It is well known that copper ore has been exported from 
the northern coast of Newfoundland to the smelting furnaces of Swansea 
for many years past. But the explorations recently made at the Bay of 
Islands have shown that these shores are rich in undeveloped mineral 
wealth. Ore containing silver has been found in some quantity, and gold, it 
is stated ; but of this the evidence is less satisfactory. The land at the foot 
of Blomidon has been marked out, and a company is now running shafts 
into the mountain and prospecting. A claim of three square miles may be 
obtained for six pounds, good for three years. But the Government of 
Newfoundland has a claim on two-thirds, or two miles of each claim. The 
Swansea Company is working the ore, or rather furnishing the capital to 
develop the veins. The time is not very distant when the world will 
awake to a consciousness of the mineral wealth and abundant timber 
resources of Newfoundland. 

The southern side of the Bay of Islands is lined with lofty ranges of 
precipices, more bare than those already described, but rivaling them in 
beauty. Their stern and sterile character really enhances the loveliness of 
the tints in which an afternoon light suffuses them. They are clear-cut in 
outline, and rose-gray and tender purple in color. Frequently among the 
higher crags of these mountains of Newfoundland patches of snow, many 
acres in extent, were seen, although it was now the month of August. We 
were assured that this snow never leaves these spots, where it lies even in 
midsummer thirty to fifty feet deep at no greater altitude than fifteen hun- 
dred feet above the sea. The north shore is cleft by wonderful fiords, 
called the North and South Arms. The cliffs which inclose them rise per- 
pendicularl}^ from the water for many hundred feet. 

About the center of the bay Hes Harbor Island. We headed for it, 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



79 



proposing to find an anchorage there, the water elsewhere being generally 
of great depth. We found the wind baffling, and the schooner was 
repeatedly seized by swirling eddies, and driven back, even with a fresh 
breeze filling her sails. This was exceedingly perplexing, and drove Cap- 
tain Welsh to his wits' ends. The full moon arose superbly while we were 
drifting in the channel between Harbor Island and Blomidon, and we 
finally anchored near Frenchman's Cove, at the foot of this sublime mount- 
ain. We seemed to be in a fabled region peopled by giants. The scenery 
we had seen during the day produced such impressions of grandeur and 
primeval solitude that I should not have been in the least surprised if 
gigantic cyclopean beings had waded out from the vast overhanging 
forests which draped the cliffs under which our little ship was anchored. 

The following day opened calm and lovely. Far away, a number of 
schooners could be seen at the mouth of the H umber River. It was fortu- 
nate we saw them there, for it gave us an opportunity of gauging the 
height of the cliffs which skirt the bay. Vessels with masts ninety feet 
high were mere white specks against the cliffs when miles this side of 
them. Having already lost so much time, we concluded to take advantage 
of the fine weather to run to the southward, and stood again toward the 
mouth of the bay. But we had not gone far when vessels were seen run- 
ning in, bringing with them a strong westerly wind and a high sea. A 
short trial with the rapidly rising waves proved that we should simply 
lose time in trying to beat out in so small a v^essel. Therefore we put the 
helm up, and decided to run to the head of navigation on the Humber. It 
was a wuld, exciting sail of some twenty miles, between lofty shores of 
novel and remarkable loveliness. 

At the very entrance to the river we began to see houses and clearings, 
and realized that we were entering upon altogether a distinct phase of the 
attractions of the Bay of Islands. Clusters of houses, enlarging sometimes 
into hamlets, were frequent ; and new houses were in process of construc- 
tion in many places, indicating activity and a growing population. At 
Benoit's Cove and Beechy Cove, pretty chapels were seen, and a number 
of important dwellings. At the latter place Mr. Evans, the only American 
in the bay, has a trading and fishing establishment. But we were unable 
to give undivided attention to the beauty unfolded at each point we passed, 
for the schooner required careful watching. In company with several 
other schooners, we w^ere running wing-and-wing before a very fresh and 
puffy wind. But in spite of the force of the breeze, counter-flaws would 
come off the land with great suddenness, taking the sails all aback, and 
threatening to carry away the masts or capsize the vessel. In one of these 



So THE CRUISE OE THE ALICE MAY. 

flaws our mainsail jibed with such force as to carry away the boom guy- 
tackle and belaying-pin. It is a wonder the head of the mast was not car- 
ried away, as happened to a schooner which was alongside of us. At 
another time the Alice May would strike an eddy, and be completely 
turned around, while the other ships would sail past her as if she were 
aground. At the same moment, perhaps within the space of half a mile, 
several schooners might be seen running with a stiff breeze, or tacking or 
becalmed ; and yet all were bound in the same direction. The westerly 
wind finally succeeded in carrying all before it, and we anchored at Peti- 
pas, the head of navigation, as the setting sun was mantling the shores and 
gorge of the Humber with indescribable splendor. We were obliged to 
anchor within a cable's length, or one hundred and fifty yards, from the 
shore, as in almost every other part of the Humber below Petipas the 
water has great depth. In mid-channel it is rarely under sixty fathoms, 
and often reaches ninety fathoms. If we give what to some may seem too 
many topographical details, it is partly with a view of aiding those who 
may think of cruising in those waters in a yacht. 

Petipas, pronounced Petipaw by the natives, is named after a Jersey 
Islander who was the first important settler at the Bay of Islands. He 
started a fishing establishment, and opened a thriving trade. But he is 
now with " the majority." and since his death the family has become 
embarrassed, and the establishment is closed. There is no street in this 
little settlement. It consists of a simple aggregation of houses, perched 
here and there, wherever a foothold could be obtained among the rocky 
ledges which compose the precipitous hill on which the hamlet has found 
a lodgment. To reach these houses, one may land anywhere, and climb 
over rocks and fences, and scramble up and down rough goat-paths. One 
of the prettiest spots at Petipas is the old saw-mill, just at the water's edge, 
at the foot of a picturesque ravine, musical with the dashing of a merry 
trout-brook overgrown with sedge. Near to this, on the smoothest piece 
of land in the settlement, stands the Roman Catholic church, rejoicing in 
a new coat of paint and some stained glass. Near the church is the com- 
modious mansion of Mr. Carter, at present the magnate of the place, who 
enjoys a monopol}' of its business. A small place like Petipas always has 
its leading citizen, who acts the part of an uncrowned chief. His will is 
law ; for by force of character he has succeeded in getting the business of 
the place mostly into his own hands, and the poor, who form by far the 
largest number in such a community, look to him for advances and supplies, 
which results, if he is shrewd, in placing them in his power. Mr. Carter is a 
typical example of this class of local despots, exactly fitted to rule among 



1 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 8 1 

the desperate characters with whom he has to deal. His head is set on 
enormous shoulders with a short thick neck ; a shaggy beard, intensely 
black, flows down to his waist, and his quick, keen, eagle eye carries terror 
to any so daring as openly to cross his will or question the unwritten code 
by which he reigns at Petipas and regulates its trade. Probably such rule 
is better than none in a place like this. 

" Have you seen our police force? " inquired Mr. Carter one morning, 
when we were in his store. "No? Well, here it is!" and suiting the 
action to the word, he drew out a massive piece of tarred, three-inch rope. 




Up the River Hiimber. 



about four feet long, and brought it down on the counter with a resound- 
ing blow. " Oh, raany's the time Pve had to use that," he added, " when 
this store's been full of fishermen, sailors, half-breeds, and Indians, half 
drunk and full of deviltry. There was no authority to call in to keep the 
peace, and Pve had to lay about with this bit of twine, and clear the room 
by hitting right and left ! It isn't quite so bad as that now, you see, since 
the herring fishery failed ; there are not so many fishermen about ; our 
people, too, are getting to be a little more civilized. But this is a sort of a 
Botany Bay, you know, with Uttle regular government, and where it won't 
do to ask too much about a man's antecedents." 
6 



82 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



The western and southern coasts of Newfoundland are a constant 
source of entanglement between the Enghsh and the French government. 
The matter is sufficiently complicated, various treaties having failed to 
settle the question so that it can stay settled. As the matter now stands, 




Fishing off the Bay of Islands. 



it seems that the French have a right to put up fish-stages and temporary 
huts for summer use immediately by the water. But they can not erect 
permanent dwellings, nor are they permitted to purchase land unless they 
become British citizens. French men-of-war may cruise on the coast and 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 83 

have stations, while no French courts of justice are allowed. On the other 
hand, the Government of Newfoundland has at last taken steps to assert its 
authority on the Humber. A fine residence has been erected at Benoit's 
Cove, opposite Petipas, for the judge ; and when we were there, a member 
from that district was to be elected for the first time to represent it in the 
Legislature at St. John's. But while claiming legislative and judicial 
rights at the Bay of Islands, the English do not yet dare to give a title to 
land, and it is impossible for any one to acquire the fee-simple of even 
enough to build upon. The English Government can only say to the 
settler, " Turn squatter, and build wherever you like. So long as the 
French do not claim it for fishing purposes, it is yours ; but we can not 
sell outright land already liable to the claims of the French fishermen." 

Such a condition of things has naturally made this a safe refuge for 
outlaws, and the population on the Humber is, therefore, such as one 
might expect under the circumstances. The herring fisheries and the 
lumber trade have, however, attracted hither a number of reputable and 
enterprising adventurers, who contrive that order shall come out of chaos, 
and the community is for the most part orderly. The people are English, 
Irish, French, and Indians. The latter are few in number and peaceable. 

The herring fishery on the Humber was at one time very profitable. 
The fish were caught mostly in nets let down through the ice in winter. 
It was not uncommon to see a hundred schooners, barks, and steamers 
lying off Petipas in the height of the season. Six years ago the herring 
suddenly left for parts unknown, and the prosperity of the place came to a 
stop. But a year ago the herring returned, and meantime a thriving 
lumber trade has sprung up, and the tide of prosperity again sets up the 
Humber. 

Another source of income is also gradually coming to the worthy 
Humberites. Two miles above Petipas is the tremendous gorge of the 
Humber. Here the banks contract to a narrow channel, overhung on 
either hand, for a space of nine miles, by vertical precipices, between 
which the river dashes down roaring rapids. Although the current here 
is dangerous, it is safely passed by the long canoes of the Indian coiireurs 
dcs bois. Beyond this the river widens again until it meets Deer Lake, a 
long, narrow sheet of water thirty miles in length, lying in a flat country 
covered with forests. The river and lake abound with trout and salmon, 
and the forests fairly teem with game. Already gentlemen of leisure from 
Canada and Great Britain have begun to visit the Bay of Islands and the 
Humber for the purpose of hunting and fishing, and there is no question 
that this is destined to be ere long a favorite hunting-ground. 



84 THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

Directly Opposite Petipas, a mile and a half across the river, lies the 
very pretty settlement called Benoit's Cove. It is situated on richer 
ground, is larger, and is peopled by a better class. Some very neat cot- 
tages are to be seen here, nestling amid clusters of shrubbery and birches. 
Here are two or three fishing establishments, the magistrate's residence, 
the telegraph- office, and an Episcopal church. Mr. Curling, the rector, is 
a gentleman of large fortune, who has built himself an extensive, many- 
gabled mansion. He is also a practical sailor, infected with a mania for 
the sea, and has a yacht of forty tons which he constructed there, and in 
which he cruises in all weathers, having the reputation of being a sort 
of Flying Dutchman who defies the storms. 

The settlers of the Humber must needs find means of entertainment 
at home, for they have but little communication with the rest of the 
world ; their own island even is almost as far off as if it were the other 
side of the Atlantic. Until within ten years only one white man had been 
known to cross the Island of Newfoundland ; and to this day a large part 
of the interior is unknown. A telegraph wire now runs through the 
woods from Benoit's Cove to Hall's Bay, and a foot traveler, by follow- 
ing the road cut for the wire, can proceed from Deer Lake to Hall's Bay, 
on the northern coast, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. In sum- 
mer a steamer arrives from St. John's once a month by way of Cape Ray, 
or, as the natives call it, through the channel. This is the only mail com- 
munication for that season. For the seven months of winter the mails 
are still more infrequent. About once every six weeks an Indian comes 
from Hall's Bay on snow-shoes and stops at Petipas. There he takes the 
mail-bags and carries them to Codroy in the channel, where he meets the 
steamer. The bags are carried on a sledge drawn by dogs, and from the 
time the carrier leaves Hall's Bay he sees houses only twice. 

The second day after our arrival at Petipas it came on to rain and 
blow. Captain Andrews, the superintendent of the copper mines at 
Blomidon, a man of large experience and intelligence, visited our schooner 
and dined with us. As it was still raining, it was suggested after 
dinner that, donning waterproofs and sou'westers, we should cross to 
Benoit's Cove and see some of the traders. During the season when navi- 
gation is open, there is a class of traders who, hiring schooners or owning 
them, cruise among the out-of-the-way ports of Labrador and Newfound- 
land, exchanging pork, sugar, tea, tobacco, cotton cloth, sea-boots, and 
the like, for dried fish. They are a shrewd and enterprising class, ac- 
customed to see a great deal of the rough side of life, and willing to run 
any risk for the sake of earning a few dollars. They might well be called 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



85 



nautical peddlers. Most of the schooners that sailed in our company up 
the H umber were traders. We ordered out the boat and crossed to Be- 
noit's Cove, and were introduced by Captain Andrews to Captain Shelley, 
who invited us aboard of his schooner. 

Stepping below, out of the drenching- torrents of rain, we found our- 




The AI ail-Carrier. 



selves among a crowd of traders and skippers seeking shelter in a noi- 
some cuddy, old and dirty and paintless, piled with wares and reeking 
with the fragrance of bilge water, wet boots, bad rum, and bad tobacco. 
But although there were evidences that the one glass in the cuddy had 



86 THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

been circulating pretty freely, washed out at each drink by the more 
fastidious with cold tea out of a rusty tea-kettle, yet no one appeared the 
worse for the liquor excepting Captain Shelley, who was full of talk. All 
were Irishmen, with one or two exceptions. Captain Shelley was himself 
a man gifted with genuine Hibernian wit, repartee, and unctuous elo- 
quence ; and, true Irishman that he was, he was deeply interested in 
politics. The subject then uppermost in his mind, as in that of most 
residents on the Humber at the time, was the approaching election of a 
representative for the insular Legislature. The conversation in that little 
cuddy was lively enough, eliciting much laughter, and some shrewd and 
serious argument. But Captain Shelley, ever on his feet, as if addressing 
an audience, was the hero of the hour ; and the roar of thunder, and the 
loud beating of the rain on deck only seemed to add to his eloquent vi- 
vacity. Among other remarks, alluding to the would-be gentry at St. 
John's, he said : " They bring up their sons to despise business ; they 
educate them for lawyers, and they become mere two-penny-ha'penny 
button-tossers, without brains enough to last them till morning, be the 
night ever so short." Again he remarked : " I have no enemies, or at 
least, if I have, they don't live long." 

The rain slackened toward sunset, and we returned to supper, when 
the Humber was all aglow with a magnificent burst of sunlight, and 
spanned by a perfect rainbow. 

The Captain of the James Divyer, a schooner lying near to us, gave a 
dance that night in a vacant loft near the wharf. He wanted to ingratiate 
the people, and incline them to trade with him, and this was the means he 
wisely adopted. To him the expense was very trifling, while it produced 
a genuine sensation at Petipas, and put every one in the best of humor. 
I don't think that I could ever forget that dance. It left a very singular 
impression on my mind. The night was perfectly clear and serene. From 
the schooner we could hear the people picking their way down the rocks 
to the scene of festivity. Then the squeak of the fiddle floated over the 
water, and a steady beating sound began, heavy and regular as the drum- 
ming of a shuttle or the beating of flails. With it was perceptible a cer- 
tain rhythm at intervals. What we heard was the heavy tramp- of the 
dancers. Evidently, they were not chasing the hours Avith flying feet 
shod with Parisian pumps and slippers. When this had lasted for several 
hours, we could stand it no longer, and decided to go on shore and see 
the dance ourselves. Part of our crew had already preceded us, and we 
found them excited with gin, and aiding to give the girls of Petipas royal 
sport. 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



87 



On landing, we met the skipper of the trading schooner, himself both 
trader and Captain, a tall, well-made person, six feet in his stockings, 
straight as a ruler, and combining in his manner and expression shrewd- 
ness and executive ability. His strong hand and his quick, decisive man- 
ner, showed the commander ; while his somewhat refined features and 
clear, sharp, gray eye, indicated the man of business. " Walk up, gentle- 
men ; walk up and make yourselves at home," he said, in a pleasant but au- 




The Dance at Petipas. 

thoritative tone, as he showed us into the building where the dance was 
going on, for he was both host and master of ceremonies. There was not 
a liglit visible to guide our steps as we stumbled across a high threshold 
out of the moonlight into a darkness that might be felt. 

"Look out for your heads! turn to your right ! " he called out, as he 
heard us tumbling over each other, groping for something to take hold 



88 THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

of. Finally we hit on a ladder, and knew by the sound that it was leading 
us to the festal hall. Some one opened a door suddenly, and revealed the 
floor of a loft, on which we hastened to plant our feet. 

Through a low door we entered a small, low-ceiled room, dimly lighted 
by two or three tallow dips, set on a barrel in bottles. The air was con- 
fusedly hazy with the dust beaten out of the floor and the rafters above by 
the tread of the dancers. Several score of people were crammed into a 
small compass, and care had been taken to keep doors and windows 
closed. For people so accustomed to exposure, they showed a wonderful 
dread of fresh air. The spectators, consisting of matrons, children, and 
old fishermen, were seated on a bench running round two sides of the 
room. The music was supplied by an uncouth fiddler, who sat on the 
window-seat, with a violin to which he beat time, thumping his heels 
against the wall. The provisions for the entertainment consisted of some 
very bad gin, set out with glasses and hard-tack on the head of a barrel. 
In the center of the floor were half a dozen lads and as many lassies en- 
gaged in a dead-and-alive waltz, without any apparent beginning or end 
to it. They reminded me of a group of puppets arranged with wires, 
moving about as they did with the interest and gracefulness of so many 
wooden figures. It was one of the most amusing sights imaginable. 
There was no expression in their faces, but they hopped up and down 
with a stead}^ tattoo on the floor. After this movement had lasted for 
some moments, without any apparent change in the position of the human 
puppets, the fiddler sent his tune away up into a diabolical squeak. Re- 
sponding to the crescendo, each swain fairly lifted his partner off her feet, 
whirled her about the room, and planted her squarely on the floor in 
another place, and the tattoo was resumed with a persistent fury for mo- 
notony, that continued until the next shriek of the fiddle-bow once more 
altered the position of the couples. This might have continued endlessly, 
without the least variation, but there seemed to be knots in this rope. 
When these were reached the dance stopped and a rush was made for the 
refreshments. In one of these interludes we made our escape. 

" The young people seem to be enjoying themselves," said the host, as 
we emerged once more to the fresh air. " I hope you enjoyed yourselves, 
too. Won't you come aboard, gentlemen ? " 

Accepting his invitation, we scrambled into the cabin of his schooner, 
and were surprised to find what a fine vessel she was, how completely 
equipped and thoroughly stored with goods. The cabin was like a coun- 
try store, the sides being lined with shelves, on which was piled a little 
of almost everything required by a rural and fishing population. 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 89 

We straightened out our crew in the morning, by ordering them no 
shore to fill the water casks and bring off a sheep. After that they were 
sent to the windlass to heave up the anchor, and we made sail for St. 
Pierre. We had a dead beat against a strong breeze to South Head ; but 
the day was superb, as if this noble bay wished to fix a favorable impres- 
sion upon the memory of the voyagers who had come so far to see it. 
Blomidon soared majestically above us, the monarch of that mountain 
land, crowned with a wreath of roseate clouds, and the surrounding isles 
were suffused with the glow of a peaceful sunset. The water of the Bay 
of Islands is as blue as that of the Mediterranean. In this case it can not 
be due to a larger proportion of salt, which is the cause of the intense 
hues of the sea in warm climates, so it must be attributed to the great 
depth of the Newfoundland bay. As I gazed entranced on the lovely 
scene before me, I was able for the first time to realize, by the aid of the 
golden haze veiling the long slopes and tumbling steeps, the grandeur of 
the sierras which inclose the Bay of Islands. The silence was intensified 
by the silvery waterfalls dropping from crag to crag many hundred feet 
with an ethereal motion, and yet giving forth no echo or sound of their 
dashing, so distant were they from our ship. But to the eye they ap- 
peared to be only a few brief furlongs away. The full moon loomed 
above the mountain-tops, solemn and glorious ; and in that weird stillness, 
and touched by an awesome feeling creeping over us, as if we were alone 
in all the mysterious vastness of an unknown and unexplored region, our 
little schooner, seeming puny as a cork-boat, was fanned past the Titanic 
cliffs which form the gateway of the bay. It was two in the morning. 
All slept save the watch and the writer. No sound was heard except 
now and then the low sighing of a passing gust through the sails, or the 
long, low, far-away boom of the surf rolling into the caves of the implaca- 
ble cliffs, and reverberating with muffled thunder down that iron-bound 
coast. 

But sentiment was soon forced to yield to reality, for we were be- 
calmed on a lee shore, and were rapidl}^ drifting toward it with the heav- 
ing of the swell. After exhausting every device in vain, we were happily 
saved from the doom which drew nearer every moment by a light breeze 
off the land. The following day was of that nondescript character which 
infuriates the mariner to the last degree. Baffling winds and calms, 
thunder-squalls, and the prospect of another night in the vicinity of this 
coast, terminated in a sunset of more than usual magnificence, with a wild 
burst of rain hurrying over a leaden sea, attended by several rainbows 
and masses of cumuli rolling up subhme over the Bay of Islands. I never 



90 



THE CRUISE OE THE ALICE MAY. 



knew the sign of the rainbow to fail at sea. It is the infallible prognos- 
ticator of bad weather when seen at morning ; while the most cautious 
mariner may pace the night-watches in hope and dream sweetly of his 
home when the bow of promise arches opposite to the setting sun. The 
mercury now rose rapidly, and by midnight a fresh northeaster set in. 
This was exactly the wind we needed. At breakfast-time every heart on 
board was exhilarated. We had reason to rejoice, for the little schooner 
was bounding ahead wing and wing on the rising sea, with half a gale 
dead aft, and " Ho, for St. Pierre ! " was again the cry. 



B 



V. 

ORNE by the Newfoundland breeze which roused us from apathy 
the second morning after leaving the Bay of Islands, we cherished 
hopes of seeing St. Pierre by night of the morrow. 

Cape Anguille appeared in 
sight about noon, and we were 
abreast of Codroy at sunset, 
with the lights of St. Paul's 
Island bearing about west on 
the starboard beam. This isl- 
and lies in the strait between 
Cape North and Cape Ray, 
and were it not for the power- 
ful twin light - houses which 
warn away the mariner, would 
be a most dangerous foe to 
ships, owing to its precipitous 
cliffs. The current of the St. 
Lawrence runs on the west 
side with great velocity, and, 
in fact, is a serious obstacle to 
vessels coming on this coast 
from the south and east. I re- 
member once being in a bark which attempted to make Sydney in a gale 
of wind. Before we could get into port the violence of the northwester 




Alap of the Cruise from the Bay of Islands to St. Pierre. 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



91 



forced us to heave the ship to on the port tack. This was toward night, 
and by daybreak she had drifted with the current out of sight of land, 
eighty miles to leeward. We thought of touching at Codroy, where the 
scenery is said to rival that of the Bay of Islands, although on a less exten- 
sive scale ; but the heavy sea, together with the fair wind bearing us 
toward St. Pierre, led us to keep on our course. Cape Ray was passed in 
the first watch. It is a bold headland, many hundred feet high, like all 
this remarkable coast. A pyramid island projects beyond it, crested by 
the star-like gleam of a friendly light-house. All the following day we car- 
ried the wind with us until night, and to stimulate the wakefulness of the 
crew we offered a prize to the one who first sighted the light of St. Pierre. 
The dangers attending approach to these islands, especially the fog liable 
to appear there at any moment, made it exceedingly desirable to get into 
port before a change of wind. But no one was destined to win the prize ; 
for when morning dawned the islands were discerned still so distant that 
the light-house could not be seen. The fact was that the wind failed us 
just when we most needed it. But although it was calm, an enormous 
swell from the southwest set in, indicating a storm blowing in that quar- 
ter and liable to reach us, bringing with it the dreaded fog that would 
oblige us to put out to sea again. To make matters worse, a light wind 
carried us actually within two miles of the passage between Miquelon and 
St. Pierre. At night-fall we were becalmed, unable to get in or make an 
offing. The glass was falling, and the little vessel was rolling her scuppers 
under, entirely helpless. A sublime thunder-squall struck the schooner in 
the first watch. The lightning resembled rockets shooting from the hori- 
zon to the zenith, and the thunder rolled over the surface of the sea hke the 
balls that Rip Van Winkle heard in the Catskill Mountains. A sharp wind 
out of the southeast and a fog of the most opaque character followed, and 
we were, therefore, in a condition to consider any change as preferable to 
the existing order of things. We lay off and on all night, entertained by 
the roar of the surf on the ledges which skirt the islands. We tacked at 
daylight with an ugly reef just under the bow, and the steam fog-horns of 
the two islands moaning through the dripping mist. The light-house and 
fog-horn of Miquelon have been long an absolute necessity ; for on the 
long low bar between Great and Little Miquelon many a good ship has 
laid her bones. Two steamers were wrecked there last year. 

" It's no use talking," said our old skipper ; " we can't dodge around 
here among them ledges. I've got to look out for the ship and the hves 
on board. You may want to risk trying the passage ; but if this fog don't 
lift soon, we'll have to stick the schooner out to sea. This ain't no place 



92 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



to be fooling with fogs and reefs." He said this in a tone and with an en- 
ergy of manner w4iich indicated that the lion in him was aroused, and 
would not be trifled with. We, on the other hand, were as strongly deter- 
mined on keeping close in, feeling our way by the lead and the sound of 
the fog-whistles, and watching for the first break in the fog to work the 
ship to an anchorage. 

At this critical moment, when a conflict of authority seemed imminent, 
we were all standing on the bow peering into the fog, and trying to dis- 
cover something. The roar of the surf was near at hand, and the skipper 
was about to give the word to put up the helm, when the fog suddenly 
parted. Directly over our heads loomed the red cliffs of Miquelon, glow- 
ing with the morning sunshine. 

" Down with your helm, hard down ! " cried Captain Welsh ; and the 
little schooner shot up into the wind, with a foam-whitened reef close 
alongside, and fell off on the other tack. The wind now shifted several 
points, and the fog reluctantly " scoffed " away, giving us a clear passage 
with a strong northeast breeze, which enabled us to work up the channel, 
past the grand rock called Colombier, which lies off the northern end of 
St. Pierre. On the opposite side, on Miquelon, is a remarkable natural 
arch bathed by the sea, which merits more reputation than it enjoys. 

On passing Columbier we discovered a scene of maritime activity 
scarcely equaled on this side of the Atlantic. The transition was some- 
what sudden, because St. Pierre is a sterile rock, three to four miles long 
and six hundred feet high, with ragged outline, and offering scarce a sign 
of life on its sea-side, which bristles with picturesque but inhospitable 
crags. But the port and roads present altogether a different appearance, 
and, in fact, an animation scarce equaled by any other seaport in the 
world. We gained a hint of what we were to see when a pilot lugger 
darted around Colombier and glided close to us, showing a crew in 
blouses and tufted French sea-caps. She was exactly like the pilot lug- 
gers of Bordeaux, and nowhere else in America is such a craft to be 
found. And yet when we at last opened the roads of St. Pierre, we were 
completely surprised by the scene which lay before us. I had but to 
close my eyes and open them, and I seemed to be once more in Europe, 
entering some busy port on the coast of the Mediterranean. The illusion 
was complete. On our right towered some tremendous cliffs, and a pict- 
uresque columnar beacon arose in the foreground. On the opposite side 
lay a group of rocky islets, crested by forts bristling with useless cannon, 
and succeeded by the fishing village of Isle aux Chiens, in the center of 
which stood a great church and the customary cross. At the lower end 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



93 



of the roads toward which we were heading, the roofs of St, Pierre clam- 
bered in a dense cluster up the steep hill-side, smitten by the splendor of 
the sun's departing glory. Across the water stole the sweet music of the 
cathedral bell calling to vespers. But still more surprising was the activity 
and bustle apparent all over the port. Only at the wharves of Liverpool 
or New York can crowds of shipping be seen gathered in such dense 
masses of masts interlocked by ropes and yards. Although it was Sunday 
evening, this hardly seemed to make the slightest difference at St, Pierre ; 




A Street in St. Pierre. 



ships were loading and unloading, and the musical singing of sailors at 
their work could be heard far and near, softening the creaking of blocks. 
Schooners and luggers were creeping lazily into port, with the measured 
stroke of sweeps as in olden time, and women could be seen fishing or 
rowing, their babies clustered in the stern of the boat with their fists in 
their mouths, just as in Brittany, The only sign to show that it was Sun- 
day evening was the measured toll of the bells from the churches, and the 
melody of accordions or flutes from boats filled with laughing girls and 



94 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 




Evan 5, ^c 



A Fishing Gang at St. Pierre. 



THE CRUISE GF THE ALICE MAY. 95 

their lovers gliding away into the shades of twilight, which gradually 
drew its veil over the scene as our cable rattled in the port of St. Pierre. 

As soon as our sails were lurled and the schooner made snug for the 
night, the crew demanded leave to go on shore. But previous experience 
with them had warned us to keep a strict watch on their movements ; and 
much to their irritation, therefore, we gave decisive orders that the boat 
should not be lowered into the water that night. We also forbade any 
one coming on board. The latter order remained in force during our 
whole stay at St. Pierre ; otherwise we should have been overrun with 
canaille, who would have demoralized the crew, and perhaps have run 
them off to other vessels. 

Ships for the most part anchor in what is called the roads, between St. 
Pierre and Isle aux Chiens, which is as snug a harbor as could be desired 
in most winds. But in northeast storms the roads are greatly exposed, 
and then the inner harbor is completely packed with vessels. This little 
port is entirely landlocked, and is provided with docks and wharves. 
But the low depth of water excludes vessels drawing more than thirteen 
feet. 

On the following morning the oflficer of the port came on board in 
French uniform, and, after extracting a fee, gave us a permit to land or 
sail free from further charges. We then ordered our boat alongside and 
went on shore. A nearer approach to the town, instead of dispelling, 
rather heightened, the impression that we must be in some seaport of the 
old world, which had been drifted across the Atlantic, away from its 
moorings, and planted here. 

St. Pierre and its adjacent islands of Miquelon, or Langlade, and Isle 
aux Chiens, form the last bit of territory in North America on which 
France has retained her grasp. Tradition states that these islands were 
known early in the thirteenth century to the Basques, who frequented the 
Newfoundland Banks, engaged, it is said, at that early period in pursuit of 
cod-fish. We do not see how such a tradition could have arisen unless 
founded on fact ; and yet historians do not seem to have given it much 
attention. It was not until 1604 that a fishing settlement was begun at St. 
Pierre. In 171 3 the colony numbered three thousand souls, and had be- 
come a very important fishing port. In that very year St. Pierre was 
ceded to Great Britain, together with Newfoundland, the French being 
merely allowed permission to dry their fish on the adjacent shores. But 
when the victory of Wolfe resulted in the loss of Canada to France, she 
was once more awarded this little group of isles lying off Fortune Bay, to 
serve as a depot for her fishermen. The French now gave themselves in 



96 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 




.-r" 



Government Houses and Town Pumps at St. Pierre. 

earnest to developing the cod-fisheries, determined, apparently, that what 
they had lost in land should be made up by the sea. In twelve years the 
average exportation of fish amounted to six thousand quintals, giving em- 
ployment to over two hundred smacks, sailed by eight thousand seamen. 
The English recaptured the isles in 1778, destroyed all the stages and store- 
houses, and forced the inhabitants to go into exile. The peace of Ver- 
sailles restored St. Pierre to France in 1783, and the fugitives returned to 
the island at the royal expense. The fisheries now became more prosper- 
ous than ever, when the war of 1793 once more brought the Enghsh fleets 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



97 



to St. Pierre. Again the inhabitants were forced to fly. By the peace of 
Amiens, in 1802, France regained control of this singularly evanescent 
possession, and lost it the following year, when the town was destroyed. 
In 1 8 16 St. Pierre and Miquelon were finally re-ceded to France, in whose 
power they have ever since remained. 

Moved by a wise policy, the government aided the unfortunate mer- 
chants and fishermen, and offered a subsidy on the vessels employed in the 
fisheries. The results have amply justified the outlay. St. Pierre is now 
in all probability the most important fishing port in the world. The pop- 
ulation, it is true, is comparatively insignificant, numbering 5,440 for 
the three islands, of which 4,804 are resident at the port of St. Pierre. 
But of these, only 783 are foreigners, and all are more or less de- 
pendent on the fisheries, while the number of sailors sometimes con- 
gregated at St. Pierre raises the population for the time to over ten 
thousand. But it is in the shipping that we learn of the importance of 
St. Pierre. In 1881 the number of entries at the port reached 2,615, while 
the clearances were 2,590, representing a total of 254,190 tons. Even tak- 
ing into consideration the fact that many of these vessels entered more 
than once, yet it indicates great bustle and activity for so small a place, 
more especially as the season lasts only for six months. 

There is another feature attending this movement in shipping which it 
would also be difficult to parallel in any other important port at the pres- 
ent time. There is a small tug owned at St. Pierre ; two steamers also 
touch there bi-monthly from Halifax and St. Johns. But, with these ex- 
ceptions, it is exceedingly rare to see an3'thing but sailing-ships at St. 
Pierre. The appearance of the port conveys almost the illusion that one 
has returned to the age before steam, while the wholly foreign and old- 
time aspect is strengthened by the curious and picturesque yawls, luggers, 
top-sail schooners and full-rigged brigs which swarm in the harbor. The 
tricolor and gay burgees are also seen on all sides, giving color to the 
scene. This is indeed a place for the marine artist to visit. By far the 
greater part of these vessels are French. Many of them are employed, of 
course, in catching the fish. But the remarkable fact remains that the 
greater part of the fishermen come from Normandy and the south of 
France in spring, and return thither for the winter. The values repre- 
sented by the exports of St. Pierre in 1882 reached the large figure of 
20,883,624 francs. The total commerce was nearly 40,000,000 francs 
($8,000,000). These data relate chiefly to cod-fish and the salt imported 
for preserving it. NW. the salt used by the French fish-stations elsewhere 
on the coast of Newfoundland is first brought to St. Pierre, and thence 
7 



98 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



reshipped. Ample, massive quays of masonry have been constructed, and 
everything about the harbor indicates that paternal policy which in France 

supervises the commercial inter- 
ests of the country. 

Perceiving that we could 
best see the various aspects 
of life at St. Pierre by spend- 
ing a few days on shore, we de- 
cided to take rooms at the Pen- 
sion Hacala. As only one room 
could be obtained there, one of 
our party lodged at the Hotel 
Joinville. These establishments 
are exactly the counterparts of 
such houses in France. The for- 
mer furnished an excellent table 

d']iotcw\\}cL 
wines; the 
latter af- 
forded 
meals on 
reasona- 
ble terms 
a la carte. 
The beds 
were pre- 
cisely the 
beds of 
Havre or 
Bordeaux, 
with red 
canopies 
and dense 
coverlets 
of down. 
We were 
lighted to 
bed with 
the brass 
Always during the 




Street Corner. 



candlestick familiar to all who have been in France. 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



99 



day the cafe of the hotel was noisy with the talk of ruddy Gascons or 
pale blue-eyed Normans, playing checkers and quaffing absinthe, cognac, 
or cafe noir, or chaffing with Jeanne, the piquant waiter-girl. Every type 
of the French race was to be seen in this thriving little town. 

The cafes and cabarets of high and low degree are found at every 

turn. On ^ ^ 

the Cathe- 
dral square 
is the Casi- 
no, which 
includes a 
theater for 
the private 
theatricals 
acted and at- 
tended by 
the elite of 
St. Pierre. 
Owing to 
the large 
number of 
sailors some- 
tmies in 

port, which 

occasionally exceeds that of the 
entire resident population and 
garrison, unusual precautions are 
taken to insure quiet and secu- 
rity. At ten o'clock at night the 
roll of a drum orders all the 
cafes and public houses to be 
closed, with the exception of the 
Casino and the Hotel Joinville, 
which may be kept open until 
eleven. This rule is enforced with undeviating strictness, and helps to 
convey an impression of military discipline, which at once distinguishes 
the place from any other town in America, and transports the imagination 
back to Europe. A small garrison occupies barracks at the terminus of 
the principal street. 

This little colony of scarce five thousand souls has all the machinery of 




A St. Pierre Fishing Boat. 



lOO THE CRUISE OE THE ALICE MAY. 

a large government, and seems as if it were made to put under a glass 
case, as a complete and portable epitome of civil and military organiza- 
tion. With the exception of the governor, who is appointed by the home 
government, the colony of St. Pierre is left to take care of itself. The 
governor, who is the Count of St. Phalle, occupies a commodious and 
picturesque residence facing a terrace, and approached from the place by 
a double stair-way, flanked by the lodges of the porter and the guard. 
The Count is assisted by an elective council. The judiciary is elaborately 
arranged and conveniently lodged m an elegant stone court-house. It in- 
cludes a chief-justice and all the various grades common in French admin- 
istration of justice. There is also an insular department of marine affairs, 
a marine court, departments of war and finance with separate buildings, a 
board of health, a department of religion and one of public instruction, a 
chamber of commerce, besides, of course, a careful system of pilotage, a 
bureau of charities, a superintendent of roads, and the like. The fact is, 
that the system of government is so complete, while the population is so 
small, that every prominent citizen has an office, and some actually serve 
in several official capacities. This is, indeed, the paradise of office-seek- 
ers. Furthermore, not to be behind the mother country, this tight little 
isle actually boasts of owning as citizens not less than eight chevaliers of 
the Legion of Honor. 

The day after our arrival we found out that St. Pierre may be consid 
ered famous for something besides its fisheries, that is, its fog. I am in- 
clined to think that this is the central depot where this article is stored for 
the rest of the world. We remained at St. Pierre eight days, and during 
seven days a fog as opaque as the walls of Babylon enveloped the harbor 
and the hills. At rare intervals it would roll off the hills and give a view 
of the town ; but for seven unbroken days the lighthouse and the harbor 
were concealed, and it required great care to row about the port and dis- 
cover one's own ship. For seven long days the steam fog-horn never 
ceased blowing its shrill warning once a minute. While that horn blew 
we knew, whatever the time of day or night, that St. Pierre was an iso- 
lated islet shut out from approach, and the sensation produced by the 
thought was peculiar, and different from anything I had previously expe- 
rienced. The town, strange to say, seemed to be quite free from fog dur- 
ing all this interval. In thick weather the approach to the islands is haz- 
ardous, and three vessels went ashore during that week ; one of them, a 
large English bark, proved a total wreck. Many is the noble ship that 
has gone to pieces on these inhospitable reefs. But during all this time 
we found no lack of entertainment. There was a zest, a piquancy, to 



THE CRUISE OE THE ALICE MAY. lOi 

every scene and object about us, which gave the place a human interest 
I have rarely enjoyed to such a degree on this side of the Atlantic. The 
natural vivacity of the French seems to have lost nothing b}^ being trans- 
planted to these bleak isles. The superstition and the intense worldliness 
of the Latin, tempered by streaks of religion, were evident, one might lit- 
erally say, at every corner ; for images of the Virgin, or of saints, more or 
less quaint, are common on the street corners, sometimes protected by a 
roof and Ht by a dip-light, or candle. Indeed, among the first objects to 
confront the eye as one enters the port are an immense crucifix crowning 
the hill on which the town is built, and an image of the Virgin in a nat- 
ural niche in the cliff overlooking the port, two hundred feet above the 
water. Pretty maidens, reminding one of Languedoc, trip to the street- 
fountain with their water-jars, and cross themselves one moment as they 
pass the image of a saint, and the next instant exchange merry glances 
with a passing lover. Perhaps that interested person is clad like a peas- 
ant in the south of France. Every other man one meets in the streets 
wears the French blouse, heavy sabots, and a blue beretta. The latter is 
a felt cap peculiar to the peasants of Beam. Perhaps, too, this blouse- 
wearing lout is driving a cart drawn by oxen yoked with the immense 
carved and tasseled yoke employed in the south of Europe. When you 
see this creaking wain laden with barrels of wine approaching, drawn in 
this wise and guided by the aforesaid slouching figure past the image of a 
saint, you say involuntarily to yourself : " Is there not some mistake about 
this? I thought I was in America, but surely I must be in Biscay." The 
Gallic love of dogs is also prominent at St. Pierre. The number of dogs 
actually licensed is out of all proportion to the population. They appear 
at every corner, and evfen the peddler's cart is drawn by dogs. Many of 
them are of the Newfoundland breed — large, handsome, and dignified, as 
who should say, " Before the French came we were lords of this island." 
A fight of Newfoundland dogs is of daily occurrence on the quay, and is 
characterized by a massiveness truly colossal. I saw nine of these noble 
fellows engaged one day in a general battle. A crowd collected at once ; 
but no one seemed inclined to interfere, for the very good reason that 
there is scarcely a man who does not confess to himself a certain zest in 
watching a dog-fight, a feeling society sometimes obliges us to conceal. 

One of the most common street sights of St. Pierre is the town-crier. 
Does a merchant receive a fresh invoice of goods, he advertises them by 
this means. Is there to be a fete, or a rifle-match, the place and date are 
proclaimed by the same personage. He wears a uniform, and calls atten- 
tion to his proclamation by a preliminar}-, soul-stirring fanfare of a bugle. 



I02 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



As he marches from street to street he is followed by a crowd of boys fil- 
ing behind him, and keeping step like soldiers, while they sing " Enfants 
de la Patrie ! " or the Marseillaise. When he reaches the bronze fountain 
in the great square facing the harbor, the interest aroused by the ap- 
proaching bugle reaches its climax ; ever)^ one stops in his work, and all 
gather in a crowd to learn the news. This is indeed a lively spot, where 
merchants with wise heads discuss trade ; where the idlers about town 




''ty 



The Cathedral. 



stroll with their dogs ; where the ships unload their cargoes ; and where 
the ladies promenade at evening. One of the most characteristic features 
of St. Pierre well illustrates the French love for the beautiful. There is 
scarcely a tree on the island, and but little grass, the vegetation being 
confined to moss on the hills, and minute vegetable gardens in the city. 
But as one walks through the little town he hardly feels the barrenness of 
nature, for every window glows with the splendor of house plants in full 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 1 03 

bloom, generally geraniums of vivid hues. It matters not how humble the 
dwelling, its windows are radiant with scarlet, and orange, and emerald. 

Society at St. Pierre is by no means dull ; on the contrary, it is emi- 
nently French. One of the wealthiest citizens is an aged widow, who in 
her own right carries on fishing, builds ships, and conducts the largest 
trading-house on the island. One finds the same restraint regarding the 
women obtaining here which is so common in all Latin countries. A lady 
must not walk abroad without a companion. She would be liable to in- 
sult, or suspicion at least, if she were to do so. The English ladies, of 
course, do as they please about this as in other matters, while the French 
shrug their shoulders and spread out the palms of their hands with a 
grimace, as if to say, " What more could you expect from them, for they 
are English ? Peste ! " At the same time there is a license in conversation 
permitted, which would be considered singular in English or American 
society. Considering that it is a French sea-port town, St. Pierre seems, 
however, to be unusually correct in its morals. 

These peculiar ideas regarding the conduct of women w^ere strikingly 
illustrated by a trifling incident at the Hotel Joinville. The maid of the 
inn was a charming young girl, who attracted much attention and flattery 
by her piquant manner. It was considered almost a matter of course that 
the men who frequented the cafe would chaff her with questionable jokes, 
and put their arms around her waist. But when the landlady heard that 
my companion was taking a sketch of her, she hustled the girl out of the 
room in high dudgeon. 

" Oh, but, madame, why not let me finish the sketch, now it is begun? " 

" No, never, monsieur. What would become of her if it were known 
that a gentleman had taken her likeness away with him to New York? 
It would never do ; je vojis assure qiiil est impossible ! " 

The people are mostly devoted to business, which they follow with 
that extreme thrift peculiar to the French. But there is much inteUigence 
among them. The education of the girls is quite satisfactoril}^ promoted 
by a nun's school, which has considerable repute in the maritime prov- 
inces. I was surprised to find it resorted to by English girls from Nova 
Scotia. Until recently, the French have shown much jealousy regarding 
the intrusion of foreigners into the business of St. Pierre ; but this preju- 
dice is less strong than it was. There is, however, little social intercourse 
between the French residents and the English, who now form a colony 
of several hundred, with a chapel of their own. They preserve all their 
national traits with emphasis. With true British fervor they engage in 
athletic sports, such as rowing and swimming — in which the French take 



I04 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



not the slightest interest — and have festivals, picnics, balls, and a rink by 
themselves. Many of the English at St. Pierre are connected with the 
management of this, and of the French Atlantic cable which lands at that 
island. It is a little singular that, although the cable is owned chiefly by 
French capitahsts, it is operated entirely by English electricians. The 
director at St. Pierre is Mr. Walter Betts, a man of tine scientific attain- 
ments. We were indebted to him and the other gentlemen of the tele- 
graph commission for many kind courtesies. Our party was also very 




Fishing for Squid. 

kindly entertained by another prominent English citizen, Mr. Trecker, the 
United States consular agent. Never did we find the time hanging 
heavily on our hands. There is a charm in the isolation of a small island 
which is most delightful, at least for a while. One of the most interesting 
spots at St. Pierre is the place on the quay, already alluded to, and the 
center of which is adorned by a jet d'cau issuing from a bronze fountain. 
The handsomest fountain in the city is, however, the square bronze struct- 
ure in front of the cathedral. This structure, by the way, although one of 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 105 

the few buildings of St. Pierre constructed of wood, is possessed of some 
architectural merit. 

The establishments for the drying and preservation of fish, which are 
of such importance here, are fortunately on the outskirts of the town, and 
in no wise obtrusiv^e. It can not be by any possibility affirmed that there 
is anything cESthetic about the drying of fish ; but as offering a study of 
human nature, it is not without its advantages. 

One of the sights of St. Pierre is the fishing for squid. These fish, it 
may not be generally known, belong to the species called the cuttle-fish, 
or octopus, although, of course, very much smaller. During the latter 
part of the season, the cod-fish can be caught only with squid. He is an 
aristocratic fish, is the cod ; for he has decided tastes of his own, and lives 
up to them. He knows his ultimate destiny, but proposes that it shall be 
accomplished in his own way. He is resigned to being caught ; but it 
must be with squid at one time, and with hake at another. Now, there is 
a fish with a character to him ! For the convenience of the fish trade, the 
squid very accommodatingly consent to make the waters of St. Pierre their 
resort, and the number caught in the harbor during the season is enor- 
mous. They are all taken by hand, and they collect in such dense masses 
that if one but drop a jig surrounded with sharp points, it is sure to catch 
something, as long as there are any squid there. Men, women, and chil- 
dren collect in boats wherever a school of squid has settled. The scene 
is of the liveliest. Sometimes fifty boats, large and small, may be seen in 
a solid cluster, with several hundred persons flinging the squid into the 
boats as fast as they can lower the jig, and vociferating at the top of their 
lungfs. This will continue for several hours, till a moment comes when 
every one becomes aware that the squid are satisfied with their share of 
the sport, and have taken French leave. One by one the boats detach 
themselves from the group, and wander aimlessly about the harbor, 
searching for the lost squid. Finally, a solitary boat is discovered attached 
by a line to a vessel and slyly drawing up squid. Immediately the word 
goes around the harbor, and from all quarters the boats are seen shooting 
with the utmost earnestness toward this quarter, and in a moment, as it 
were, a crowd has again collected. The squid bring half a cent apiece, 
and form one of the most important sources of revenue at St. Pierre. 

The Sunday before we sailed a great annual shooting-match was held 
on the hills above the town. Owing to the density of the fog, the sport 
was somewhat impaired ; but the occasion brought together a good 
crowd after the morning mass. The following day the fog cleared away, 
and we seized the opportunity to slip out of the port before it should close 



io6 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 




Curing fish at St. Pierre. 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



107 



in thick again. Our crew were getting restless, also, and needed some 
occupation to keep them out of mischief. Two of them had already suc- 
ceeded in getting themselves drunk on bad wine, and, after trying their 
best to stab the by-standers, were compelled to pass the night in the guard- 
house. 

But before taking our leave of St. Pierre we were treated to an amus- 
ing incident. There was staying at the Pension Hacala a Canadian of un- 




(?.P.\W\Uia-»»s.^c- 



The Town Crier. 



limited loquacity and assurance, who made the landlady believe that while 
ostensibly we were pleasure-seekers, newspaper men, and artists, we were 
really Americans of leisure and money, who thought no more of five-dol- 
lar gold pieces than a Frenchman does of a sou. 



Io8 THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

" Now, if you follow my advice," he said, " you'll make a round penny 
out of them, and you'll see they won't even notice it ! " 

The advice fell into willing ears. We said nothing, but waited to see 
the result when the time for settling arrived. Madame was an absurdly 
long while figuring on the bill. Besides swelling the usual items far in 
excess of the customary charges, Madame Hacala actually had the assur- 
ance to charge full board and lodging for the member of our party who 
had lodged at the Hotel Joinville. 

"How's this, madame? I haven't stayed at your house; I've only 
dined here two or three times. What's the meaning of this item?" 

" It is true you did not stay here ; but you engaged a room, and you 
must therefore pay for it." 

" But I did not occupy the room, as it was already occupied. I only 
engaged it in case it should be vacant on a certain day ; but it has not 
been vacated. No ; we shall not pay that charge, madame. Permit me 
to say it is an outrage and a swindle." 

" Then monsieur does not intend to pay his hotel bill ? " she said, shrug- 
ging her shoulders and making a sickly grimace in reply. 

After some palaver the widow was forced to recede from some of her 
charges, which would not bear scrutiny. 

The sun shone out brightly over the crags of St. Pierre as our little 
schooner drifted out to sea through the northern entrance. It had been 
blowing a gale of wind for two or three days and we encountered a high 
swell. Captain Welsh had been very reluctant to leave, and was full of 
forebodings when a dark night closed us in with a light head wind. 
With his usual caution, he steered for a good ofifing ; and at daybreak we 
were well to the southward of our course, but heading for Sydney with a 
heavy wind. 



VI. 

AT day-break of August i8th we had hoped to see the high land of 
Cape Breton Island, but were greeted instead by a boisterous 
southwest gale, attended with fog, which turned into violent 
squalls of wind and rain and a savage sea, which, by its short, steep 
waves, showed that we were coming under the lee of the land. When the 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



109 




Struck by a Squall. 

southwest wind concludes to swell to a strong gale it is of short duration, 
either backing around to southeast or shifting to west-nor'west. We kept 
a sharp lookout in the rapid squalls, and at noon the wind shifted to north- 
west. At once the murky horizon began to clear away, and the lookout 
at the mast-head cried " Land ho ! " There, indeed, was the land, twenty 
miles away ; but the prospect of reaching it before night was slim, as the 
wind now fairly screeched, raising an ugly, cobbling sea which, with the 
strong tide and current, scarcely allowed the little Alice May to hold her 
own under the short canvas to which she was stripped. 

But toward evening the wind moderated, and, with the change of the 
tide, we stood in quite near to the land, and gazed astonished on the noble 
coast lost to view far away in the broading north. After sunset the wind 
came out stronger than ever, and, as Captain Welsh was unfamiliar with 
the harbor of Sydney, to which we were bound, we gave up all hope of 
getting in that night, greatly to our disappointment, as the time allotted to 



no THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

our cruise was now getting short and every day was valuable. While we 
were discussing the prospect below in no very amiable mood, the mate put 
his head down the companion-way and shouted : 

" There's a tug alongside, sir, bound in ! Do you want to hail her ? " 

We cleared the stairs at a bound, and, as we saw the tug passing us at 
the rate of twelve knots, did not stop an instant to deliberate, but hailed 
her with, " What do you ask to take us in? " 

" Ten dollars ! " 

" All right ; lay alongside and take a line aboard ! " 

In two minutes we were attached to the tug, our canvas was lowered 
and furled, and in an hour we dropped anchor in a snug haven amid a 
cluster of ships' lights twinkling in the water around us. We had arrived 
at Sydney. This port depends entirely for its importance upon its coal 
mines. The island of Cape Breton is completely seamed with veins of 
coal, which are worked at various places. Louisburg and Sydney are, 
however, the chief mining centers, and the latter has a large export trade. 
The harbor is large and secure, but owing to the character of the weather, 
insurance is doubled on ships going there between the first of October 
and the first of April. Sydney really consists of North and South Syd- 
ney, which are situated five miles apart on the same bay. The former, 
although the larger of the two places, has little to attract. But South 
Sydney, where our courteous consul, Mr. Lever, resides, is a charming 
village, with green, sloping banks gracefully meeting the placid waters of 
a beautiful cove. The water is so deep near the land that the largest ves- 
sels can moor within a few yards of the shore. This is a magnificent bay 
for boating, and South Sydney can be safely recommended as a summer 
resort. Two large French ships of war were lying there at the time of 
our visit. The house of the French consul comes close to the water ; its 
ample veranda, overhanging willows, and smooth-shaven lawn aided to 
give a semi-tropical air to the town. Both here and at North Sydney 
churches abound, and the kirk and the papacy seem to be diligent in 
gathering flocks into the fold, the Catholics outnumbering the Protestants. 
The natural limits of each would appear, however, to have been reached 
for the present. The emigration from Cape Breton to the United States 
keeps pace with the natural growth of the population, which is very mea- 
ger. It does not exceed seventy-five thousand, on an area larger than 
Massachusetts. North of the Bras d'Or, between St. Anne and Cape 
North, is an immense tract covered with primeval woods, which has never 
been fully explored. The axe has not touched the dense forests, nor has 
the rifle of the settler disturbed the bear, the deer, and the caribou, which 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. Ill 

still roam there at will. Judging from the character of the coast, which 
is broken and sublime, the interior must be rich in attractions to the artist, 
the sportsman, and the adventurer. There is little enterprise at Cape 
Breton. " What our people want," said a gentleman to me, "is money." 

But something more is needed, and that is that willingness to dare 
which is called enterprise. It must be conceded that the long winters 
tend to check immigration and to foster emigration, while the yield of the 
mines and the fields and the large exportation of beef cattle are sufficient 
to keep the people comfortable, at least, if not wealthy. It is rare to see 
any signs of poverty at Cape Breton. The result is to make them gener- 
ally contented. They all own their farms and homesteads, and every 
commodity is cheap. Most of the worthy islanders are of Scotch descent, 
and a hale, hearty, buxom race they are. Those who come thence to the 
United States should be welcomed, for they are of a nature to add real 
strength to the race now building up in this country out of the various 
peoples flocking to our shores. 

There was nothing to detain us long at Sydney, while the famous Bras 
d'Or yet remained to be seen. Louisburg we decided not to visit, because 
our time was short and little remains of the former town. We therefore 
took a fresh stock of water and provisions on board, and the second morn- 
ing at dawn stood out to sea. It was a superb day, one of those which 
make the heart light, and we had a fair wind to carry us to the Bras d'Or, 
only two hours' sail from Sydney. 

The conformation of Cape Breton Island is peculiar. It is divided 
into two nearly equal portions by an arm of the sea some sixty-five miles 
in length. These two halves are united at the western end by a neck only 
a mile wide. A canal was cut through this some years ago, allowing the 
passage of ships of one thousand tons, and the island now virtually forms 
two islands. At the eastern extremity the entrance is nearly occupied by 
Boulardrie Island, and the narrow passages on two sides are called the 
Great and the Little Bras d'Or entrances. The latter is very narrow and 
tortuous, and hardly accessible except to boats. But the former is nearly 
a mile wide in parts, and the approach is, in nautical language, clear, or 
free from reefs. On emerging from this strait, one comes into two noble 
sheets of water, called the Great and Little Bras d'Or Lakes. It is evi- 
dent at a glance that this conformation of land and water must offer a fine 
opportunity for inland cruising. 

Our fair wind suddenly shifted into our front, and we now found we 
should have a dead beat under press of sail to get in before night. The 
winds around these highlands are very puffy and capricious, but we were 



112 THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

amply repaid by the beauty of the frowning chffs toward which we were 
heading ; the colors of land, water, and sky were the most harmonious 
and beautiful we had yet seen during our cruise. The light showers and 
magnificent rollmg masses of cloud added grandeur to the cliff, over one 
thousand feet high, trending north and south, and suffused with the most 
exquisite gray and purple and blue and pale green. 

In the afternoon, as we were drawing near to St. Anne's Bay, the wind 
shifted again with a violent squall, carrying away our stay-sail. But it 
was in our favor, and the little craft responded to the blast with wild glee, 
bounding through the water at a rate which soon carried us past Cape 
Dauphin's cliffs to the entrance of Bras d'Or. The channel widened after 
we entered, but the wmd failed when we had proceeded two or three 
miles, and we anchored under a magnificent precipitous mountain, ten 
hundred and fifty feet high. It is called Mount St. Anne, or Kelly's 
Mountain, and forms part of a range which extends along the coast to 
Cape North. Farm-houses were to be seen snugly situated on velvety 
slopes, and the crow of chanticleer floated over the water like a welcome 
to this favored region. 

The following morning at day-break we were aroused by the familiar 
click of the windlass, orders having been given to start for Baddeck 
as soon as it should become sufficiently clear to sail without running 
ashore. But the wind was ahead, and we had ten miles to beat with short 
tacks against a strong current. Only one shoal lay in the channel, and 
that was buoyed. We therefore gave ourselves, without thought, to 
preparation for breakfast, and were discussing the probabilities of dining 
at Baddeck, when a harsh grating sound was heard under the keel, as the 
schooner lifted her bow and brought up all standing with an ominous 
shock. 

" Isn't this a pretty way to end our cruise — in broad daylight, too ! " 
we all exclaimed in chorus, as we tumbled on deck. We were hard and 
fast on a rocky shoal, and the prospect was good that we should stay 
there, or at least be forced to heave out our ballast. The wind was light, 
and we could get little help or comfort from that quarter. The vessel 
had missed stays when near the shoal, and the current had carried her 
right upon it. There was a good depth under the stern, fortunately, and 
once more we carried the anchor out in the boat and dropped it in deep 
water ; but no one on board had any idea that it would prove of any avail, 
the vessel seemed to be so firmly fixed on the rocks. We all bowsed on 
the cable with a will, but were not surprised to find that our efforts made 
no impression. We had about concluded to start the ballast, and a gen- 



J 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



1 1 



eral feeling of depression and disgust prevailed, altogether too deep for 
tears, when, to our surprise, the ship made a sudden movement, then 
yielded yet further to the gentle coaxing of the hawser, and finally slid 
easily into deep water and floated. We could only account for her get- 
ting off on the presumption that she had lodged on a ledge which had split 
away by the pressure of the keel. But apprehensions and surmises now 




The Bras d'Or Lakes, Cape Breton Island. 



gave place to rejoicing. Soon after, a staving easterly wind added to 
our good luck, and drove us up the strait as if we were bound to the gold 
mines instead of the Bras d'Or. The approach to the first, or smaller, of 
the two lakes is exceedingly beautiful ; the hills, receding on either hand 
from the shore, are crowned with tuft-like forests, nodding over the lovely 
slopes. The scenery here is much like that of the Hudson. As we opened 
the lake, palisade-like plaster cliffs began to appear, greatly adding to 



114 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



the effectiveness of the prospect. In some places they were shaped like 
the columnar bastions of the Giant's Causeway ; or, anon, their grayish- 
white rocks, spotted with lead-colored tints and overgrown with vines or 
dwarf cedars, bore a marvelous resemblance to some of the old castles of 
Europe. 

These plaster cliffs form one of the prominent features of the scenery 
in many parts of Cape Breton, not only by the water-side, but inland as 
well. When the rock is broken, it has a beautiful creamy white color ; but 
the weather gradually tones this down into mellow, harmonious grays. 
The plaster is a deposit of lime, which has proved a considerable source 
of profit to the island — more, perhaps, in the past than at the present — 
both for plastering houses and for enriching the soil. 

At last a light-house appeared, perched on the brow of a lofty cliff. It 
seemed strange to see light-houses in a small lake, conveying the impres- 
sion that it was a miniature sea. This idea was emphasized when another 
small light-house was discovered at the end of a wee bit of an islet which 
helps to form the quaint little harbor of Baddeck ; and there, too, lay 
Baddeck itself, a miniature sea-port in a miniature sea! The effect was 
almost whimsical. Here is a capital city, compact and complete as cities 
abroad, with its light-houses, its ship-yard, its wharves, its custom-house, 
its bank, its court-house, its jail, its suburbs, its hotels, its old mansions, 
and what not besides, and yet numbering only about a hundred houses and 
a population of five hundred ! 

We arrived at Baddeck, the capital of Cape Breton, about three P. M., 
and immediately landed to get the letters we expected to find there. 
From the day we left Charlottetown we had not heard from home, nor 
for six weeks had an opportunit}' been offered us to send letters that 
would reach home sooner than if mailed by us at Cape Breton, so meager 
are postal communications in some of the places we had visited, while, in 
several cases, the monthly boat had sailed the day before we could reach 
it. It was Sunday afternoon, and, of course, the post-office would be 
closed. But we determined to make an effort to get a sight of our corre- 
spondence before another sun should set. 

The post-office was in the residence of the post-master, a picturesque 
cottage half concealed in shrubbery. That dignified official had been to 
church, and was at home reading the weekly newspaper and the latest 
monthly magazines from the United States. He received us politely, but 
blandly declined to desecrate the Sabbath by entering the office and giving 
us our letters, which, he kindly informed us, were there awaiting us and 
would be given to us on Monday. But he was willing to listen to reason, 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. II5 

and when we told him we had not had a word from home for two months, 
he saw the point, and graciously relented. In a few minutes we had a pile 
of letters in our hands, and hastened to the hotel to read them. 

The situation of Baddeck is exceedingly beautiful, on the slope of a 
steep hill whose summit commands a superb view over the Bras d'Or 
lakes. One of the most interesting houses in Baddeck is the residence of 
Mr. Campbell, who represents this district at Ottawa. A fine stone wall, 
bearing marks of age, and a venerable row of poplars give a certain air of 
decayed gentility to the place. The jail is a low, brown, black-roofed 
stone building adjoining the post-office. It is the oldest as well as the 
most interesting structure in the town. It stands directly on the street, 
without any inclosure, but the windows are secured by iron bars, which 
give a grim aspect to what might otherwise be taken to be a granary. 
No prisoners were confined in the jail at the time of our visit, nor was 
there evidence that any had been there for a long time. But the jailer's 
family occupied it ; and it was not unusual to see two pretty faces gossip- 
ing idly behind the bars, and embroidering the while, as one sometimes 
sees gayly tinted flowers clambering over the crumbling walls of an old 
fortress. 

On market day the streets of Baddeck are lively with Highlanders 
coming in from the country-side to barter their produce, and Gaelic is 
heard on all sides. It is by no means uncommon to find some among them 
still who speak only Gaelic. We saw a lassie at the school-house door 
gayly discoursing with a grave young man, possibly one of the trustees, 
and her flaxen elf-locks, bright blue-gray eyes, rosy cheeks, tall, shapely 
form, and elastic step were for all the world so thoroughly Scotch one 
might have sworn she was Burns's Highland Mary. 

The suburbs of Baddeck extend east and west along the water-side. 
The east suburb, if we may so term it, consists of a most beautiful and ro- 
mantic road, somewhat elevated about the beach, and extending to the 
bottom of a deep cave where ships load coal and lime. It is skirted on 
the water-side by birch and cedar, gracefully overhanging the bank. At- 
tractive cottages are on the other side at rare intervals, hidden in groves 
of natural growth thinned out. A church, finely situated on a knoll mid- 
way, gives a point d'appui for the eye, and accentuates one of the loveliest 
drives in British America. Along the entire distance one gazes upon the 
grand heights of Mount St. Anne and the island-studded waters of the 
Bras d'Or. Anywhere near New York, this noble natural esplanade 
would be greedily seized by land speculators, and would soon be lined 
with elegant country-seats. For a combination of attractions, including 



1 16 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 




Indian Camp at Baddeck. 

views, driving, boat- 
fishing, hunt- 
ing, and a delightful 
air during the sum- 
mer, Baddeck is un- 
doubtedly one of 
the finest spots in 
the gulf provinces, 
and it is a great 
matter of surprise that some of our people do not make it a summer 
resort. Land and provisions are at present exceedingly cheap. The 
difficulty is, in going to any new place, that no sooner do the people 
imagine there is to be a demand for their property than they ask inflated 



A Wigwam Cradle. 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



117 



prices, which tend to drive away the new-comers, who might eventually 
give land a fixed and reasonable value. 

The other suburb of Baddeck is on a low point adjoining the western 
end of Cape Breton's capital. Doubtless without deliberate intention, this 
has been made very attractive to tourists. The houses are exceedingly 
picturesque, and give the impression that their occupants are enjoying a 
sort of perpetual picnic. To be more precise, we will say that we found 
there a genuine aboriginal camp, composed of bark wigwams and inhabit- 
ed by real Indians, who, in spite of the tattered vestments which a neigh- 
boring civilization has forced upon them, retain a certain savage aspect 




On the Road to Baddeck. 



that is not without interest and piquancy. As one approaches the camp, 
through a grove of dwarf cedars, he discovers unmistakable evidence 
of Indian life in the groups of dogs sleeping on the turf or fighting over a 
bone. Then papooses, more or less nude, are seen tumbling on the grass 
in rude sport — black-eyed, black-haired, copper-colored, and unspeakably 
filthy and stupid. There is no mistake in the symptoms. We are on the 
edge of an Indian settlement pure and simple. The wigwams are con- 
structed wholly of birch bark, and are occupied, summer and winter, in 
preference to any other habitations. We found the inhabitants of this 
suburb not unwilling to receive visitors with a gruff, surly courtesy. 



Il8 THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

Their speech is pure Algonquin, although some of them speak broken Eng- 
glish. In two or three of the wigwams we noticed stoves — a concession 
to a progressive civilization which was very amusing, especially when the 
pipe could be seen peering above the pointed roof of the conical bark struct- 
ure. The infant papooses, tightly swathed in swaddling bandages, were 
suspended in leather hammocks, and were curious and nondescript objects, 
little dreaming that they were the rightful owners of Cape Breton Island, 
yet were destined to be robbed of their inheritance by the law of the 
strongest. It is a fact that the Indians of Cape Breton still consider 
themselves to be the rightful owners of the island, and, while living on 
friendly terms with the whites because obliged to do so, bear them no good 
will. It is not so many years since an open attempt was made to assert 
these views, when, under the influence of liquor, a number of them imder- 
took to break into a house, violently declaiming against the invasion of 
their rights. At present no one is allowed to sell liquor to these Indians, 
and they are, for the most part, an inoffensive race, devoted to a life of in- 
dolence, with intervals given to fishing and the making of tubs and 
baskets. The Indians of Cape Breton are Micmacs, and number, perhaps, 
two thousand. There is a large settlement of them at Whycocomagh, 
where they live in neat huts on a reservation of two thousand acres. 
Near the western end of the Bras d'Or they own an islet, called Indian 
Island, on which there is a large Roman Catholic Church. Once a year, 
on the third of August, they assemble there from all this region, put up 
wigwams for the occasion, and spend a week in reviving Indian games 
and ceremonials. Religious services are also performed in the church, 
which are intended to sanctify them for the ensuing twelvemonth. Each 
individual is expected to give the priest ten cents before he can be ab- 
solved. As these Indians are wretchedly poor, receiving pay in kind for 
what they produce, it is said that many find it difficult to contribute even 
this minute offering. 

The day after our arrival at Baddeck it blew a violent gale of wind. 
But the weather moderated the following day, and, after laying in the 
usual stock of fresh provisions, we headed our little vessel once more to 
the westward. The Little Bras d'Or Lake is about ten miles square, al- 
though really much larger, owing to the deep bays which make in several 
directions. It comes to a narrow passage, when it merges in the Great 
Bras d'Or Lake, which is called Barra Strait, or Grand Narrows. This 
is one of the prettiest parts of the Bras d'Or. The large lake is about fif- 
teen miles in width. The northern side is picturesquely clustered with 
islets; but the southern side is fringed with vertical plaster palisades, 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



119 



which tend to make this lovely sheet of water dangerous to small vessels 
in northerly gales, owing to the under-tow. The short waves raised here 
in a storm are sometimes quite dangerous, and small vessels have been 
known to founder in the Great Bras d'Or. It came on thick with rain 
and half a gale, which made it a little difificult to discover the outlet for 
which we were heading ; especially as the mate and the captain were at 
variance as to the location of the gray headlands looming faintly through 
the mist. But the Sydney steamer came along at this time, and by watch- 
ing her course we were able to find the point we were seeking. 

When it was no longer of much consequence whether it was clear or 
cloudy, the sun came out in a blue sky and a lovely afternoon attended our 
onward course. As we entered the narrow channel of the west Bras d'Or, 
we had Indian Island close on the port beam, and obtained a clear view 
of the church and the wigwams. On the starboard was the light-house of 
Cape George. The light-keeper occupied a unique residence ; it was the 
cabin df a large vessel which had been wrecked there some years before. 

At this place we met a fleet 



63 62 01/ ~3 

Ofsr.LAiyji£xcji J S 1 




o c :e A N 



Wost /58 fioi 



From St. Pierre to Geors'etown. 



of rakish schooners, standing 
eastward and looking very 
saucy as they danced over the 
waves and careened over in 
the brisk breeze. 

We now entered on a very 
enjoyable and interesting part 

of the Bras d'Or, suggesting by its features the Thousand Isles. It is 
thronged with little islands, and the shores are deeply indented with fairy- 
like coves. The channel is very tortuous, requiring manv short tacks and 
the greatest circumspection to avoid getting aground. The farm-houses 
were scarce, and sometimes we seemed to be in a primeval solitude. 
There was an abundance of water-fowl, and the gray eagle could be seen 
soaring far up in the azure above. The air was soft and balm)-, and 
the temperature ranged at sixty-five. The wind was d3^ing out, and it 
soon became evident that we should be unable to pass the canal at St. 
Peter's that day, as we had hoped. But there were compensations in the 
delay. We anchored between two lovely islands, and went on shore to for- 
age and " view the landscape o'er." Stopping at the farm-houses, we 
found the people courteous and ready for a chat, and we decided that one 
might find less agreeable ways of passing an August afternoon. At sun- 
down some of our party took the boat and tried a few shots at the ducks, 
which abounded, but with rather indifferent success; our boat was not 



120 THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 

suited to such sport. But there is no question that, with the right appa- 
ratus, a good sportsman could bag many a fine bird in the Bras d'Or. The 
abundance of animal life in the woods was vividly impressed on us at sun- 
rise. The placidity of the scene was phenomenal ; the smoke arose in spiral 
columns from the farm-houses, the cattle bells tinkled in the meadows ; and, 
in every grove and thicket about us, we heard or saw plover, yellow-ham- 
mers, and squirrels. Indians were also on the shallows in canoes spearing 
eels. One of them came alongside and begged for a crust of bread. He 
was a miserable, sickly, blear-eyed being, the very last dregs of a race 
that has run out. A Highlander also visited us, with a lamb killed that 
morning in the hope of supplying some passing schooner. We bought it 
for five cents a pound, and found it sweet and tender. The wind and tide 
favoring, we now sailed up to St. Peter's, at the extreme end of the Bras 
d'Or. This canal is of great advantage to coasters, especially during the 
autumn. Of course, there is no navigation here during the winter and 
spring, owing to the ice. Eleven hundred vessels pass through this canal 
annually. Our crew towed the Alice UTay to the lock, and at dinner-time 
we were once more afloat on the waters of the broad Atlantic, in St. 
Peter's Bay, and heading for the Lennox passage between Madame Island 
and Cape Breton. The scenery was quiet but pleasing, and Indian en- 
campments were seen in several places on the sea-shore. As we sailed 
out we met a most dilapidated schooner coming in, on the way to the 
Bras d'Or for plaster. She belonged to Charlottetown and was of unknown 
antiquity. She and her skipper, Captain Foley, who was also the owner, 
had sailed together for some thirty years. As she went by us. Captain 
Welsh hailed him, but received only a sardonic grin in return, although 
they had been acquainted since boyhood. 

This Captain Foley was just such a character as Victor Hugo likes to 
portray, being indeed an example of human nature exaggerated to carica- 
ture. The schooner herself was a character. Her rusty sides had once 
been painted black ; her rotten rigging hung slack from the gray masts ; 
and the evening wind seemed to sing through her sere, tattered sails, as 
she slowly glided by us on the glossy tide with the silence and weird- 
ness of a phantom ship. Often had Captain Foley sailed her alone ; once 
he took her without assistance from Charlottetown to Arichat. The con- 
stant watching, together with the bad weather, exhausted the old fellow, 
and, after dropping anchor, he went below for forty winks ; but the winks 
ran together in an uninterrupted sleep of three days. When the old man 
awoke he had lost his reckoning, as he had likewise nearly lost the num- 
ber of his mess, and he had to go on shore and inquire the da_y of the 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. I2i 

week. Latterly this nautical hermit had selected a humpbacked compan- 
ion to accompany him, as guide, protector, and friend. This precious 
specimen of misshapen humanity seemed to be well suited for the exalted 
position to which he had been elevated. He was seated on the taffrail, 
looking over the shoulder of Captain Foley, who was steering. He was, 
without exception, the most satanic-looking being I have ever seen. His 
distorted features were covered with a ragged black beard ; he was blind 
of an eye, and one of his teeth projected like a tusk. The pair reminded 
me of Caliban and an ape holding idyllic converse on a bark " built in th' 
eclipse," and " rigged with curses dai'k." Although the evening was tine, 
there were numerous indications besides the falling barometer that we 
were about to have a heavy storm. There was a large ring around the 
moon, and that sad, foreboding wail in the rigging which strikes the mari- 
ner with apprehension. The signs rapidly accumulated which indicated a 
gale before morning; and here we were, becalmed and unable to get any- 
where. We launched the boat, and the crew made an attempt to pull us 
around a certain vexatious buoy, which being once passed we could keep 
away several points and take advantage of the sou'west air now trying to 
blow. After rowing awhile, the crew began to grumble ; the captain 
went out on the forecastle, fairly aroused to senile wrath, and, in the quav- 
ering tones of old age, thundered out : " Row away like good fellows ! 
get her around that buoy ! don't let's hear any more of this laziness ! What 
are you made of, I should like to know, that you can't pull an oar ten min- 
utes without howling ? Shut up now, and pull away ! " 

This had the true ring in it; the men fell to with a vim, and struck 
up a song whose variations were vocal more than verbal, as all there was 
to it was " Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound!" The time of sea 
songs is, alas, over ! The poetry of the sea is not found in studied lyrics 
or epics now, but in the hearts of those who love to wander over its wide 
and desolate wastes of gray and listen to the piping of its storms. 

By midnight the breeze had considerably freshened, and, as we were 
then near the land, we anchored for the nonce until we could have day- 
light. At dawn it whistled a living gale of wind out of the northeast. 
As we were in an exposed position, we made sail and ran for a lee. We 
found a snug place at Grand Digue, and rode with both anchors close to 
the shore of Madame Island. A number of other schooners also ran in 
there for shelter. It blew violently all day, and, as we afterward learned, 
a number of wrecks occurred on the coast. 

But we seized the occasion to enjoy a ride to Arichat. The wind was 
accompanied by a pelting rain, but, armed with India-rubber coats and 



122 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



heavy boots, we could afford to defy its worst. We hired two open bug- 
gies and started. The distance was seven miles across Madame Island, 
over sohtary, rolling, russet-lined moorlands, whose monotony was broken 
by thickets of whortleberry bushes, or clumps of alder and dwarf cedar, 




Cape Porcupine. 



Cape St. George., from Hastiiigs. 



or here and there a rain-dashed lake nesthng hke a dimple in a hollow, the 
haunt of water-fowl. On our left we saw the village of Biscouche, a small 
sea-port on the northern side of the island. The landscape, if not strictly 
pictorial, was full of sentiment and delicate suggestions of color, and con- 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 1 23 

veyed a grand impression of space. It reminded me of Millais's famous 
painting, ** Over the Hills and Far Away." 

Arichat is in reality a French town under the English flag. It was at 
one time a place of considerable importance on account of its fisheries, in 
which were employed a large number of pinks and schooners. From one 
cause and another this source of revenue has fallen off. But the great 
firm of Robin & Co., of whom I have already spoken, have one of their 
establishments at Arichat, conducted with their usual method and neat- 
ness. A cannon announces the hours for work and rest, while the bell of 
the convent rings over the isle at the same hours. An island across the 
entrance to the harbor is called Jersey, after the island where Robin & 
Co. originated. Their establishment at Arichat was first on Jersey ; but 
it was burned, together with a number of their ships, by American priva- 
teers during the Revolution, and they then removed it to its present loca- 
tion. The cod sent from here goes chiefly to Spain. 

Arichat is a very interesting Httle town, albeit now in its sere and yel- 
low leaf. It straggles chiefly along one street, facing the sea on a bluff. 
It was at one time a place of considerable wealth, evidences of which re- 
main in some of the very pretty cottages, decorated with carved cornices 
and embowered in shrubbery. As these houses face the sea, they all have 
a covered porch, to protect the entrance from the cold sea-winds of win- 
ter. The willow appears to thrive better there than any other tree, and a 
number of venerable and noble examples are seen in the main street. As 
at St. Pierre, the windows are all filled with house-plants. The physician 
of the place advertises himself by a large pink-colored mortar, peeping 
through the shrubbery in front of his house. His name is De L'Espe- 
rance — not a bad cognomen for a doctor. There is a large church at Ari- 
chat, and a conventual school for young ladies, which has a wide repute 
throughout the maritime provinces. I thought to myself that the poor 
girls who go away from home to study in that dormer-windowed hall, 
without a tree around it, and overlooking the vast solitude of ocean, must 
sometimes think it a bleak and sad place, and especially those whose 
windows overlook the hill-side cemetery adjoining, which reminded me of 
the old grave-yard at Plymouth. It is affecting to ramble through the old 
cemetery at Arichat ; for, in the frequently repeated family names and the 
tokens of affection, which appear oftener than in any other cemetery I 
have seen, one seemed to read the sad story of a society once happy and 
prosperous, but now gone to decay. The McNiels seem to have been one 
of the leading families of Arichat, who, although of Scotch descent, often 
intermarried with their French coreligionists. 



124 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



We dined at the minutest and quaintest of little inns, kept by Mr. Fin- 
lay, whose wife laid before us a capital meal for only thirty cents each, 
and seemed so anxious to please that it is only just to call the attention of 
strangers to their house. A curious and absurd breed of dogs was pointed 




Lovi-rs' Lane, Hastings. 



out to us as peculiar to Arichat. They are like Newfoundland dogs, large, 
black, and shaggy, but some waggish fate has robbed them of their tails, 
leaving only a shortish stump. 

We had a wild, windy ride back to the Alice May, but one of Henry's 
choice ragouts and smoking cups of tea in a cosy cabin were ample com- 
pensations. On the following morning we sent our boat across the strait 
to procure some potatoes from the farmers. The sailors were directed to 
dig them out of the ground themselves. With the aid of the spy-glasses 
we could easily perceive the rogues flirting with the rural maidens. 

After dinner the gale had sufficiently moderated for us to beat up the 
Lennox Passage, and we made sail. The channel is well marked by buoys, 
but care should be taken, nevertheless, to cast the lead, and not venture 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



125 



too near in shore. The Alice May raked up the mud once, but got off 
immediately. Both she and her captain did their prettiest that day. 
Toward night we opened the Strait of Canso. It was still blowing a very 
fresh breeze, making it next to impossible to work up the strait. A fleet 
of vessels was, therefore, lying in the Habitants' River Roads, near Bear 
Head, waiting for a change of wind. We followed suit and came to an- 
chor for the night. Ere long we were visited by the captains of two 
square-rigged vessels, bound, like ourselves, for Charlottetown. This in- 
terchange of courtesies by ships on a voyage is a ver}' pleasant feature of 
sea life. Good-will is at once established, and notes of experience are ex- 
changed in a friendly, chatty manner, with perhaps a social glass, and then 
they part, probably never to meet again in their wide wanderings. 

The wind was still ahead the following morning, but we concluded to 
take advantage of the in-going tide and beat up as far as Hawksbury. 
But the rest of the fleet decided to wait for a change of wind. The tide 
through the Strait of Canso, or Canseau, when going with the current, 
runs from five to seven miles an hour, and, when opposed by a southerly 
wind, produces a violent sea, which it is impossible for a vessel to breast. 
But with the aid of this tide a fore-and-aft schooner can beat up when it is 
not blowing too hard. The strait averages from one to two miles in 
width, and is about twenty-five miles long. The entrance is very beautiful 
and impressive, and the prospect increased in loveliness and variety as we 
proceeded. On one side we had Cape Breton Island, and on the other the 
shores of Nova Scotia. 

Previously we had had much reason to find fault with the captain dur- 
ing a dense fog, when we discovered him sleeping in his bunk below, and 
only one man in charge of the wheel and the deck. No fog-horn was 
blowing, nor was a lookout kept at the bow. 

"Where's your fog-horn. Captain Welsh?" we demanded with indig- 
nation. " Is this the weather to lie below ? You ought to have a sharp 
lookout on the bow, and keep the horn going ! " 

" Oh, never you bother yourselves about the ship ; I'm looking out for 
her. It don't make much odds about blowing the horn ; other vessels 
coming this way will blow their horn, and we can keep out of the way 
when we hear them." 

" Suppose every shipmaster should reason in the same way, where 
should we be?" we cried, thoroughly out of patience with such inane and 
childish recklessness. And thereafter we compelled him to keep a lookout 
forward, and to have the horn blown every two minutes whenever there 
was any ki^. 



126 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



\% 





^J^ 



A Street at A tic hat. 



By noon we succeeded in anchoring 
in a snug berth at Port Hawksbury, 
where we were forced to lie two days 
with a fleet of vessels waiting for a 
change of wind, which had set in with 
vexatious persistency from the north- 
east. But we might have been in a 
worse place, for the scenery is of the 
most exquisite character, and I often 
wondered while there that so little has 
been written about the loveliness of the 
Strait of Canso. The shores of Cape Breton are here more varied and 
picturesque than in any other part of the island, while the opposite shore 
of Nova Scotia rivals it in attraction. There is, also, more of the human 
element in this neighborhood than one sees in many of the prettiest parts 
of the maritime provinces; and this, in my opinion, always adds greatly 
to natural scenery, by contributing aids to sentiment, such as old mills, 
old granges, old orchards, leafy lanes, dilapidated wharves, church spires, 
quaint inns, and the like. Now, the region around Port Hawksbury and 
Port Mulgrave, which lies directly opposite, is abundantly provided with 
all these features, which make it of especial interest to artists, and, in fact, 
to all of cultivated minds. In a lesser way, of course, it reminded me 
frequently of the finest parts of the Bosporus. There are some delicious 
bits of picturesqueness at Port Mulgrave, to which we crossed by a steam 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



127 



ferry-boat, and found ourselves at last in the land of railroads. On that 
side, also, a little further up the strait, broods Cape Porcupine, a magnifi- 
cent precipitous headland, six hundred and forty-three feet high, but easily 
looking as if it were ten hundred feet. From its shape and position Cape 
Porcupine commands the entire strait, and gives character and force to 
every prospect from all points. 

But if we had to choose between the two shores, in a region where a 
comparison would seem especially invidious and superfluous, give us the 
inexhaustible beauty of the Cape Breton 
side. For three days we exploi'ed its 
attractions on foot, proceeding well up 
toward Port Hood on the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence, and it seemed as if it ex- 
ceeded all the beautiful scenery through 
which we had passed, for givmg the 
largest variety of pleasure to the sum- 
mer tourist. 

On the third day we managed to beat 
up to Port Hastings, the most beautiful 
spot on the strait, and anchored there in 
a small cove, desiring to have the ves- 
sel near at hand, in order that we might 
the more readily study the neighboring 
scenery. The high sea and wind for- 
bade any attempt to proceed further. A 
fleet of schooners was lying there, also 

wind-bound. When rounding up to anchor, the Alice May fouled with 
one of them, carrying away her starboard cathead, and receiving some 
slighter injury. The result was a vigor of speech on both vessels which 
nearly terminated in blows. 

Port Hastings was formerly called Plaister Cove. Some noble cliffs 
are there, at the mouth of a beautiful stream which empties into the strait. 
The town is built upon an abrupt height, and from a distance seems to be 
about to slide into the sea. 

Port Hastings might easily pass itself off for a village on the Rhine, 
with its rambling lanes embowered with willows, its houses straggling 
down a steep, and its church perched on the highest coigne of vantage. 
The road toward Port Hood follows a plateau, below which the farmers 
were raking in their hay, close to the sea ; beyond, on the left, towered Cape 
Porcupine ; while on the right towered the craggy coast ranges of Cape 




An Old Cottage at Arichat. 



128 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



Breton. Many a buxom Maud Muller, raking hay in a straw hat, was to 
be seen in the meadows, and the whole scene was pervaded by an air of 
pastoral peace, and rounded into completeness by the blue waters of the 
sea, fading into the cloudless azure above us. 

The wind at last seemed inclined to relent and give us a chance to get 
home. Accompanied by a fleet of schooners, we beat out into the gulf 
past Cape Jack on a beautiful quiet morning. But the wind freshened 
again, and we had a hard beat all day to get around Cape St. George, 
after passing which we could keep away and have the wind abeam. 

The breeze fell at night and the moon arose at the full, sheening the 
oily surface of the swell with a broad band of quivering silver. The pre- 
siding spirit of that region evidently intended that we should have pleas- 
ant recollections of the last night of our cruise. 

At daylight we had a chance to form one of the quick decisions com- 
mon in sea life. By our charter, we could leave the schooner at any port 




The Oldest House in Prince Edward Tslard. 

in Prince Edward Island. The captain and the owner were anxious that 
we should take her back to Charlottetown ; but it was a matter of time with 
us now. The wind seemed to favor continuing to Charlottetown, and we 
were heading in that direction, when the wind suddenly canted several 
points. Instantly the word was given to alter our course and head for 
Georgetown, at the eastern end of the island, where there was a railroad 



r 

\ 



THE CRUISE OF THE ALICE MAY. 



129 




Heaving the Log. 

Station. In an hour we sighted land ; at noon we found ourselves passing 
through a crowd of fishing schooners, and toward evening we entered the 
port of Georgetown and beat up to an anchorage off the town. Ten 
minutes later the anchor was down, our traps were in the yawl, we shook 
hands all around, and took our last farewell of the good little schooner 
Alice May, which had carried us to many places and safely over many 
waters. 



Before closing the journal of our cruise in the Alice May, it would be 
doing injustice to our feelings to omit a cordial acknowledgment of the 
many courteous and hospitable attentions for which we are indebted to 
Col. Dunn, United States Consul at Charlottetown, since promoted to the 
post at Valparaiso ; and also to Frederick Hvndman, Esq., United States 
Vice-Consul at Charlottetown, and numerous other hospitable friends who 
aided us to enjoy our summering about the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
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THE CRUISE OF 

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